Sonia Furstenau slams B.C. NDP's bid to woo Green voters
Green leader says her party is needed to keep NDP, Conservatives in check; Tory leader pledges CleanBC cuts
B.C. Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau is pushing back against the B.C. NDP's plea for Green voters to abandon her ship and hop aboard the NDP's ship instead.
The statement from Furstenau came on Sunday, after B.C. NDP leader David Eby made an appeal to Green voters at a campaign stop in Squamish, B.C.
Eby said Green and NDP voters should stick together this election to defeat John Rustad's B.C. Conservatives, who he says are running a campaign of division, denial and plans to dismantle climate, healthcare and housing affordability initiatives.
Given the tight race between the parties, Eby said he was asking voters to think what it would be like to see Rustad win and then make service cuts.
"Take a moment and think about how it would feel if … the morning after the election, you wake up and the premier of B.C. is John Rustad and he begins his work to cut the services we all depend on?" Eby said.
"Your vote matters in this election in a way that hasn't been the case before," he said. "We can ensure we're delivering a high quality health-care system and we can make sure we're continuing to take climate action."
Within hours, Furstenau took to social media and replied to Eby's appeal.
"You began this campaign by backtracking on core NDP values," she wrote in a statement posted to X, referring to Eby's changing positions on the carbon tax and involuntary care.
"So if we don't elect more B.C. Greens, who will stop you from adopting more of John Rustad's positions?" it continued.
I have just one question for David Eby. You began this campaign by backtracking on core NDP values. So if we don't elect more <a href="https://twitter.com/BCGreens?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BCGreens</a>, who will stop you from adopting more of John Rustad's positions? <a href="https://t.co/7pxesZCyN5">https://t.co/7pxesZCyN5</a>
—@SoniaFurstenauFurstenau slams Eby's overall strategy
Furstenau has said she doesn't expect her party to garner enough votes to form government, but has repeatedly expressed throughout the campaign that electing Green Party MLAs would ensure B.C. the legislature isn't dominated by the NDP or Conservatives.
Later on Sunday, Furstenau followed up with a statement, in which she boasted that her party is leading in polls for Victoria-Beacon Hill and doing well in other ridings across the province.
She also slammed Eby's campaign.
"Throughout his campaign, Eby has focused on telling people not to vote for the B.C. Conservatives, and now he's telling people not to vote for the B.C. Greens," she said.
"What he's failed to demonstrate is why British Columbians should vote for the B.C. NDP, effectively squandering the multi-point lead he had for most of this year," she added.
At last week's televised leader's debate, Furstenau said both Eby and Rustad will need to be held in check by Green voices in the legislature.
She said the two leaders are aligned on continuing to subsidize the fossil fuel industry, and both are proposing a program on involuntary care to fight the province's drug overdose crisis instead of increasing voluntary treatment.
Furstenau, whose Greens won three seats in the 2017 election and helped the NDP form a minority government, has also often said her party was blindsided by the NDP when former premier John Horgan called a snap election in 2020.
Furstenau was then one of two Greens elected to the legislature in 2020.
Rustad promises CleanBC cuts
Rustad said at a campaign event Saturday, if elected, he would make cuts to the province's CleanBC program that aims to reduce harmful climate emissions by 40 per cent by 2030.
The Conservative leader has previously said the B.C. NDP's plan to favour non-fossil fuel-burning technologies such as EVs and heat pumps would put the province into an electricity deficit.
"There's so much that needs to be done to be able to make sure we adapt to climate, but a big piece of it is also electrical generation," he said before speaking in favour of nuclear energy and energy independence for the province.
Former B.C. Green leader Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist whose research earned a Nobel prize, said he's backing Rustad's Conservatives even though he doesn't agree with the leader's skeptical views on climate change.
But Indigenous leaders in B.C. called for voters to support the NDP "to ensure that Indigenous rights are not rolled back and that we can work together to address the climate emergency."
"We all need to realize what is at stake and what the consequences will be if your vote leads to John Rustad and the Conservatives getting elected," said a statement Sunday from Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs vice-president Don Tom and Chief Marilyn Slett of the Heiltsuk Nation.
With files from The Canadian Press