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<\/a>The parties<\/b><\/p>\n
The BC NDP is a social democratic party on the centre-left of the political spectrum. The current NDP government was first elected in 2017 and led by former premier John Horgan, who served from 2017 to 2022. The party is now led by succeeding premier David Eby, who has served since November 2022. As of writing, the BC NDP holds 55 seats, a majority in the provincial legislature.<\/p>\n
The BC Conservative Party is the main centre-right political party in British Columbia and currently stands as the main opposition to the governing BC NDP. The BC Conservative Party is currently led by John Rustad, who has been an MLA since 2005, and used to be with the BC Liberals. The Conservatives recently replaced BC United\u2014formerly the BC Liberals\u2014as the official opposition in British Columbia. As of writing, the Conservatives hold eight seats in the provincial legislature.<\/p>\n
The BC Green Party is a social democratic, single-issue party focused on environmental justice and social democracy. The BC Greens have been led by Sonia Furstenau since 2020. The BC Green Party stands as the third-largest political party in British Columbia. As of writing, the BC Greens hold two seats in the provincial legislature.<\/p>\n
In previous elections, the BC Liberals were the main centre-right party, however, BC United has recently disbanded, with many of their nominated candidates now running under the BC Conservative banner while some are now running as independents.<\/p>\n
Housing<\/b><\/p>\n
Victoria is the second most expensive real-estate market in British Columbia, behind only Vancouver. A huge factor playing into the absurdly high cost of housing in Victoria is demand massively outweighing supply, which has made it nearly impossible for students to secure housing while studying here.<\/p>\n
Since taking power, the BC New Democrats have rolled out some fairly detailed plans for affordable housing and will continue to implement those plans if re-elected, but it will take years for students to start seeing results from those plans. The most prominent steps that the BC New Democrats have laid out to address the cost of housing include regulating short-term rentals, returning short-term rentals to the housing market, turning them into affordable housing in areas with a high demand for housing, and giving municipal governments across the province the ability to strongly enforce by-laws pertaining to short-term rentals. The NDP has also introduced legislation meant to build more affordable housing near transit hubs, encouraging more transit-oriented development and better connected communities.<\/p>\n
A large problem hindering the progress of affordable housing is zoning laws imposed by municipal governments. The NDP has moved to change zoning rules to quickly build smaller, more affordable, and denser housing developments that fit into already existing neighbourhoods. The changing of zoning laws permits municipal governments to add additional housing density, exceeding provincial housing targets.<\/p>\n
As they have yet to outline any concrete policy proposals, the BC Conservatives\u2019 housing policy is vague at best. When considering their options in this election, young British Columbians worried about housing and the cost of rent may be disappointed to discover that the brief BC Conservative housing plan does not include a plan to lower the cost of rent, instead, they plan to \u201cstabilize the housing market\u201d by focusing on increasing housing supply, just like the NDP have promised, and they also mention \u201ctackling money laundering.\u201d<\/p>\n
The BC Greens have laid out three main goals to tackle the cost of rent. Should they form the government, the Greens say in their platform that they will \u201cclose the gap\u201d between affordable rent and what renters are paying\u2014they plan to introduce a means- or eligibility-tested government grant for low- and middle-income earners currently paying more than 30 percent of their income in rent. The Greens also plan to target low- and middle-income earners who are paying more than they can afford in rent. As well, the Greens argue that cuts to programs that promote affordable housing by both BC NDP and BC Liberal governments have led to \u201cunbearable conditions\u201d and have made housing a for-profit industry. While the Green Party\u2019s plan is still vague, its platform offers concrete plans to help renters, unlike the Conservative Party, whose policy focus is elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Overall, the housing policies of the parties have been disappointing thus far. The BC NDP\u2019s record on housing over the past seven years has been bold in theory; however, the cost of housing, specifically rent, has increased consistently throughout their time in government. Meanwhile, the BC Conservatives have provided the least amount of detail on their plans to make housing more affordable while not at all focusing on the cost of rent. While still vague, the Green Party have provided some solid housing and policies, which are expected to be expanded on when they release their party platform in full.<\/p>\n
Public transit<\/b><\/p>\n
Public transit is the way many Camosun students get to and from campus. This means a heavy reliance on the bus system until they can buy a car, if that is even an option for them. For some students, that can mean long, crowded, often frustrating bus commutes to and from campus.<\/p>\n
The BC New Democrats have a rather disappointing record on public transit, and their policy platform is equally as disappointing. Many of the NDP\u2019s transit policies pertain to transit in Vancouver; however, many students will be happy to know that in the last budget, the New Democrats invested in an expansion of BC Transit bus services, including an increase in trips, but it may take a while for the effects to be seen in full.<\/p>\n
The BC Conservatives have no publicly available plans to improve public transit across the province. Rustad has promised to end \u201cbillion-dollar bailouts\u201d to TransLink, the lower mainland transit authority in charge of the Skytrain system. Based on their vague plan to \u201cfix\u201d TransLink, the Conservative Party plans to address overcrowded routes, but they provide no concrete plan on how they plan to do that. Overall, the BC Conservative platform does not go into specifics on transit. When they do, it is oriented toward Vancouver while ignoring the pressing issues in transit systems across the province.<\/p>\n
Out of the three main parties, the BC Green Party have presented the boldest transit policies. The Greens are advocating for bus and train ridership to be free of charge in BC. The Green Party has also proposed a continued, long-term, stable expansion of public transit systems across the province; they will also ask local governments to establish a vision for BC Transit as Vancouver Island\u2019s population grows.<\/p>\n
The BC NDP and the Conservative policies are focused on solving transit issues in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. For the most part, these policies ignore the issues facing frequent riders in the rest of the province, and that is no accident: the election will be won or lost on the Lower Mainland, so the NDP and Conservatives focus much of their time, money, and policy proposals on Vancouver voters. Meanwhile, the Green Party\u2014whose party leader resides on Vancouver Island\u2014has directed their policies toward a Vancouver Island-oriented, yet province-wide, audience. The three parties\u2019 approach to transit policy reflects the geographic dynamics in provincial politics very well: the politicians are all attempting to appeal to voters in areas they think they can win.<\/p>\n
Cost of living<\/b><\/p>\n
Everybody is feeling the cost-of-living crisis, however, students have been hit significantly hard. With the crisis increasing the cost of basically everything, including rent and groceries, many students are being forced to juggle their studies with their jobs, as well as maintaining their personal and social lives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n During their time in the BC government, one of the many steps that the NDP has taken was a steady annual increase in the minimum wage to $17.40 per hour across the province. The New Democrats have also introduced a renter\u2019s tax credit of up to $400 for low- and middle-income renters with an annual income of $60,000 or less, as well as capping rent increases to below the rate of inflation, capped as of now at 3.5 percent. The NDP has also taken measures to make electricity more affordable, keeping BC Hydro rates below the rate of inflation. The NDP has joined with the BC Conservative Party in their stance to reverse the controversial carbon tax enforced and implemented by the provincial government.<\/p>\n Despite Rustad being a member of the government that introduced the policy in 2008, the BC Conservatives plan to lower gas prices by abolishing the price on pollution, also known as the \u201ccarbon tax,\u201d a popular buzz term for Conservative politicians across Canada in recent times. While it\u2019s expected that the full Conservative plan to tackle the cost of living will be released when the campaign officially begins, the publicly available policies\u2014including ending the ICBC monopoly, stabilizing the housing market, and providing choice in daycare\u2014are vague. Polling suggests British Columbians still trust the New Democrats on the cost of living more.<\/p>\n Only a few policies have been released by the BC Green Party about the cost-of-living crisis in British Columbia, apart from the publicly available housing policies. However, expect all of the parties, particularly the Conservatives and Greens, to make affordability a major issue during the upcoming campaign. Because they are associated with the federal Green Party, the BC Greens share many of their values and policies, including on the issue of affordability. The party has spoken about the implementation of a universal basic income, providing immediate support for those experiencing chronic homelessness, and access to social housing for Indigenous people.<\/p>\n Overall, the plans to make life more affordable among the three major parties could be clearer, especially coming up to an election that comes at a time when the high price of everything is squeezing students across the province particularly hard. While life has become more unaffordable since the New Democrats took over in 2017, they have a track record in trying to address the crisis head-on, with the raise in the minimum wage and the introduction of policies to make rent more affordable. The Conservatives have introduced their very bare-bones plans to make life more affordable, most of which, particularly the cut to the provincial carbon tax, are borrowed from the federal Conservative Party platform; it\u2019s unclear how much more affordable life would get should these policies be implemented. The Green Party plans, while vague in detail, are the boldest out of the three main parties and could make a real impact on people\u2019s lives, with implementing a plan for chronic homelessness and improving access to social housing having the potential to do a lot of good for many British Columbians if they can be rolled out on a large scale. Expect more in-detail policies in the days ahead as each of the parties make affordability a main campaign issue as election day approaches.<\/p>\n Climate change<\/b><\/p>\n The climate crisis is hitting hard all over the world, but look no further than here in British Columbia to see its devastating effects. Summer after summer, Victoria is breaking heat records. The heat dome and yearly forest fires have become a part of our summers, and it is up to everyone, starting with you and me, the government, and corporations, to curb the crisis and keep our planet inhabitable.<\/p>\n The BC NDP have passed legislation to reduce carbon emissions in British Columbia by 16 percent by next year. The New Democrats have also proposed implementing plans to reduce climate-changing emissions by 40 percent by 2030 by creating an economy where British Columbia\u2019s resources are repaired, recycled, and reintroduced as other products. Additionally, they\u2019ve proposed investing in carbon capture technology, clean power sources, and in clean and sustainable technologies. They also plan to plant millions of trees to improve natural carbon absorption, and to keep BC Hydro rates low. Overall, the NDP has put forward a comprehensive set of policy proposals to tackle the climate crisis, and if they are re-elected they can bring positive strides toward making British Columbia a leader in tackling the climate crisis.<\/p>\n The Conservative Party and Rustad have been the subject of scrutiny for their comments on the climate crisis, including questions by Rustad and some of his party\u2019s candidates about whether or not climate change is man-made or whether it is real at all. Rustad has said that they will take a \u201cdifferent approach\u201d to addressing the climate crisis, but has offered very few details on exactly how they plan to do that. The main Conservative climate policy is axing the carbon tax and the low carbon fuel emissions standard, which the Conservatives believe will improve affordability. The Conservative Party\u2019s approach to the climate crisis is not only disappointing, but it signals that the party\u2019s focus is on winning votes with culture-war issues rather than solving the province\u2019s pressing issues.<\/p>\n The Green Party has promised to match California\u2019s commitment to reach carbon neutrality by 2045, protecting British Columbia\u2019s green areas to maximize their potential as carbon sinks, and they have promised to immediately end oil and gas subsidies, redirecting that money toward environmentally friendly technology and helping businesses grow. Additionally, the Greens have promised to develop plans to meet their 2030 and 2045 carbon-neutrality targets, with an interim target of 2025 to ensure the province is on track. Seeing as they are a single-issue party, the Green Party\u2019s climate policies are the boldest out of any of the three main parties and, if implemented, they would make British Columbia a leader in the fight against the climate crisis.<\/p>\n Overall, the New Democrats and the Greens have proposed the boldest climate change policies out of the three, both committed to setting net-zero targets and achieving carbon neutrality. Apart from their rhetoric, so far the Conservative Party lacks an in-depth plan on how they would tackle the climate crisis, instead focusing on policies that would do more harm than good, and erase a lot of the progress that has been made in tackling the climate crisis. It is expected that the New Democrats and Greens will push the Conservatives for specifics as the election campaign unfolds.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This election is expected to be close, making each vote valuable. We\u2019ve provided you with a guide to each of the parties\u2019 stances on the issues that matter to students, and now the choice is up to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While it may not be the most high-profile or talked-about election this year, the 2024 British Columbia provincial election has been getting increasing attention and coverage as we approach polling day on Saturday, October 19. Political experts say that the election is a close race between the BC New Democratic Party (BC NDP) and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,318],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-october-2-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25826,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25824\/revisions\/25826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}