PENTICTON — Fourteen days after the writ, the nominations are closed and the lawn signs are no longer provisional. Monday is the first full weekday of a finished ballot.
Nominations closed Saturday at 1 p.m. Pacific. Elections BC has posted the final list: 355 accepted names, a Conservative in all 93 ridings, a New Democrat in 92. Civic voting day is Saturday, October 17. Provincial advance voting opens Friday, October 16, and runs through October 21. Final voting day is Saturday, October 24.
Another tax, ahead of the rally
A BC NDP rally in Victoria kicked off Sunday with another promise to tax British Columbians.
Party Leader David Eby announced that his NDP government, if re-elected, would add a new income tax bracket of 24.5% on income over $1 million and raise the two brackets immediately below it by two points. The increase hits the first dollar at $190,405, rather than exclusively targeting million-dollar salaries.
According to the party's release, that slice would face an 18.8% tax rate, income between $265,545 and $1 million would be taxed at 22.5%, and anything over $1 million at 24.5%.
The party claims the change kicks in for the 2027 tax year and projects it will raise $225 million in 2026-27, $925 million in 2027-28, and $1 billion in 2028-29.
The NDP release also asserts that over 96% of residents — those making $190,000 or less— will pay nothing more.
The new tax bracket follows two housing taxes he put on the platform in Burnaby on September 25. The Unsold Condo Tax would hit finished condos left empty for more than a year, starting at 2% and rising one point for each additional year unsold. The same release would lift the speculation and vacancy tax from 1% to 2% for domestic owners and from 4% to 5% for foreign owners.
The Conservative reply called it a doctor tax. Shaw posted that line at 6:05 p.m. PDT Sunday.
The party said the increase lands on wages physicians make, and will drive doctors out while the government is trying to recruit them. "There is no problem the NDP don't think can be fixed by raising your taxes," the party said.
Doerkson had said in Cache Creek the same day that taxes will not rise if he is premier.
Campbell, out of cold storage
Gordon Campbell resurfaced Friday, publishing an opinion piece on Castanet. "If David Eby and the NDP are granted another term, the B.C. we grew up in will not be recognizable," Campbell wrote. "Eby's government is defined by failure, constant deterioration, and division that entrenches inequality.”
He argued that Eby's decisions worsened conditions and that reducing BC's competitiveness increases its dependence on the United States. The piece is an opinion, not a platform, and refrains from endorsing any candidate by name.
Iain Black, named Thursday as a Conservative campaign co-chair, shared the piece at 10:19 a.m. PDT Sunday, urging followers to read it entirely.
Black framed it as a "list captured by the man who faced a similar list in 2001 and knows both the size and dizzying complexity of the mess that's been created by David Eby," adding, "And that it can be fixed". Eby fired back at his Fernwood rally.
Rob Shaw reported at 6:19 p.m. PDT that Eby quipped, "they even rolled Gordon Campbell out of cold storage" to stump for the Conservatives.
Jim Pattison is the other icon circulating in weekend clips.
On Friday, Eby took aim at Pattison for grocery store "price gouging" at a Kelowna press conference.
Pattison, the Vancouver-based business magnate and founder of the Jim Pattison Group, has a long record of philanthropy across British Columbia, supporting health care, education, children’s charities and community organizations.
Global's Jordan Armstrong reported Saturday night that Eby doubled down on comments made Friday, noting a former NDP premier accused him of "denigrating an icon.”
Armstrong's report included a statement from Pattison Food Group president Jamie Nelson highlighting the company's 111-year history and its employment of "more than 30,000 team members across Western Canada.”
Yet another Armstrong clip posted Sunday evening shows Eby's predecessor, former BC NDP Premier John Horgan, speaking highly of Pattison.
Former BC Premier Ujjal Dosanjh and former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney also criticized Eby's negative remarks about Pattison over the weekend.
Who is missing from Elections BC's final candidate list
Elections BC confirmed 355 names on its finalized election file over the weekend: 93 Conservatives, 92 New Democrats, 73 Greens, 35 CentreBC candidates, 33 OneBC candidates, eight unaffiliated candidates, seven Independents, four Libertarians, four Communists, three Christian Heritage candidates, two CWP candidates, and one Freedom Party of BC candidate.
A Saturday NDP release claimed women made up 60% of its slate and that 38 candidates were indigenous or visible minorities.
The empty cells on the file, meanwhile, told the more compelling stories.
Tara Armstrong was absent from the Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream ballot. Armstrong, who has sat as an Independent since December 2025, posted online Tuesday calling the party "the party of blackmail" without confirming a re-election bid, and ultimately did not file nomination papers.
Former minister George Chow was also missing from the Vancouver-Fraserview ballot. Aman Singh filed for the NDP and will face Conservative Deep Sandhu.
The Western Standard reported on September 28 that Chow had told Premier David Eby he would not seek re-election, although Chow posted no personal retirement statement.
Other sitting MLAs absent from the final list included Kerry-Lynne Findlay, John Rustad, Ravi Kahlon, Kelly Greene, Brenda Bailey, Amelia Boultbee, Hon Chan, Brent Chapman, Lana Popham, and Linda Hepner.
Rustad, Boultbee, Bailey, Greene, Kahlon, and Popham had previously announced their departures. Hepner rejoined the Conservative caucus on September 21 but did not file nomination papers.
Chapman, whom OneBC announced as a candidate on September 22, was likewise missing from the final candidate list.
OneBC's 33, after the courtesy list
OneBC initially claimed it would, or at least could, contest all 93 ridings. This was further reported by CKNW radio host and former BC Liberal MLA Jas Johal.
The party then issued a courtesy list of eight "principled conservatives" it wouldn't oppose, only to announce Wednesday it was reopening North Island and Kelowna Centre. The final file tallies 33 OneBC names.
The file contradicts Dallas Brodie's Wednesday statement about running "amazing candidates" in those two reopened ridings.
Kelowna Centre features Bill Desrosiers for OneBC, but North Island has no OneBC name. Salmon Arm-Shuswap, initially on the courtesy list, now has Barbara Presch for OneBC running against David Williams.
A caucus he would not cut
Interim Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson spent the final stretch of candidate nominations under a relentless barrage of NDP attacks over controversial past comments made by several caucus members—yet refused to drop a single name from the slate.
The political pressure peaked during an interview with CTV’s Vassy Kapelos, who pressed Doerkson directly on Heather Maahs, the Conservative candidate for Chilliwack North.
While Doerkson distanced himself by stating he does not share her views on sexual minorities or abortion, he delivered an unequivocal "Yes" when asked if she would remain on the ballot.
NDP candidate Spencer Chandra Herbert had previously posted a panel clip characterizing Maahs as accusing BC's gay community of being pedophiles.
CTV further reported a 2022 podcast quote where Maahs described school books depicting same-sex relations as "for sure grooming.”
Despite NDP candidate Ravi Parmar demanding Doerkson drop her before Saturday’s 1 p.m. deadline, Maahs remained on the roster.
Maahs was far from the only target in the NDP's crosshairs.
On deadline day, the NDP widened its offensive with a release characterizing past statements from a wide swath of Conservatives. The party accused Sheldon Clare of Prince George-North Cariboo of defending residential school mortality rates and calling for municipal politicians to be hanged; David L. Williams of Salmon Arm-Shuswap of suggesting Western Canada become a U.S. protectorate; and Kristina Loewen of Kelowna Centre of comparing pandemic restrictions to the Holocaust.
The release also targeted ten Conservative candidates over a past Pride-flag vote. Richmond Centre NDP candidate Henry Yao charged that Doerkson had "chosen to embrace the far-right Findlay wing.”
With the ballot officially locked, Doerkson is shifting his focus back to defending his own backyard. Following a Sunday swing through the southern end of his riding — working Savona, Cache Creek, and Clinton — he is set for 100 Mile House on Monday to further defend Cariboo-Chilcotin.
