'I can run under any name': B.C. Liberal leader Kevin Falcon looks forward to uncertain 2023

It's been a busy year for Kevin Falcon. 

From winning the leadership of the B.C. Liberals in February to overseeing the approval of changing the party's name in November, jostling with John Horgan in his first week of question period and then with Premier David Eby in his last: the leader of the opposition has seen plenty of changes to his job.

Nonetheless, he sees the province's political arena as much the same overall from when he departed in 2013, following 12 years serving in the cabinets of premiers Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark.

"It hasn't changed a heck of a lot, to be honest with you," he said in a year-end interview with CBC News.  

"I think that social media is obviously a much bigger part of public life now, and that has its good and its bad elements ... but I think the thing that drew me back was the same thing that caused me to leave, which is my kids."

Eby blunting opposition attacks

To Falcon, that means a leadership style focused on critiquing the government for issues he believes will negatively affect future generations, from having enough doctors in the system to housing prices that haven't significantly decreased under the NDP government. 

"This government is going to do more of the same and expect different results. But frankly, we've just got to have the courage to do more and better and faster," he said, arguing he would implement results-based incentives if he were premier.

At the same time, several of Falcon's continued criticisms of the government in recent weeks have been blunted by Eby, who moved quickly to reverse criticized changes to autism funding while accelerating funding and reforms on policing and mental health files.  

"They actually sat on a whole bunch of announcements they could have made a lot earlier," he said.

"But what's important for the public to know is that you know, the government's very good at making announcements. But the results we're getting are really, really poor and we have to focus on results."

And Falcon believes that even in the reversal of some policy decisions, there's a critique to be made about the lack of transparency within the government.

"If there's one way you really want to get the public very, very concerned is you don't share information," he said, referencing a number of times where the province has released potentially damaging news on Friday afternoons or evenings.

"And unfortunately this pattern is repeating itself under David Eby as premier of secrecy, and covering up information instead of just being open about it."

Election or no election?

It's unclear when Falcon will present that pitch to voters, or what his party's name will be when it happens. 

The B.C. Liberals are in the midst of changing their name to B.C. United, and Falcon says a timeline will be determined in the spring. 

"Now normally that shouldn't be a hard decision because we have fixed election dates," he said.

"Unfortunately, we saw this NDP government call that election in spite of the fixed election law … although Premier Eby has said that he won't call the election, he's been quite explicit about that, I'm sorry to say that I can't totally trust those words."

As a result, Falcon says the party will begin naming candidates for a potential election early next year, with a focus on what plagued them in the 2017 and 2020 campaigns — a much less diverse slate of potential MLAs than the NDP.

"My goal in 2023 is to go out and recruit some outstanding candidates that are diverse, that reflect different backgrounds and ethnicity and sexual orientation and interests so that we can have a very good, diverse caucus," he said. 

"I can run under any name, B.C. Liberal, B.C. United. It's more about the policies and the principles that we'll be putting forward to the public that I think matter the most."