The British Columbia Conservatives are beating out the NDP for the first time ever, according to a poll conducted by Mainstreet Research. If an election were held today, the Conservatives would finish in first place with 34% of the vote among all voters, according to the Friday poll. BC Conservative leader John Rustad said in an interview with the Western Standard it “has been quite a ride for the Conservative Party of British Columbia over the past year in terms of gaining across the province.” “What I’m hearing day-in, day-out is people are frustrated with the NDP, they think the United Party is a waste of time, and they’re looking for an alternative,” said Rustad. “The Conservative Party of British Columbia is presenting people with a common sense approach and it certainly seems to be resonating and I’m pleased to see it’s showing up in the polls.” When people look at United, Rustad said it is obvious it is struggling. While he has some sympathy for his former colleagues, he admitted it has plenty of rot and baggage. Among all voters, the NDP would come in second place (31%). This was followed by undecided (14%), United (13%), Greens (6%), and another party (2%). When it comes to decided voters, Mainstreet Research found the Conservatives would have a sizeable lead (39%). The NDP would hold onto second place (36%). United would finish in third (15%), the Greens come in fourth (7%) and another party would place fifth (3%). Mainstreet Research President and CEO Quito Maggi said the latest snapshot of the BC political landscape “paints a grim scene for Kevin Falcon and the BC United Party.” “Even in the unlikely scenario where they choose to reverse course on the disastrous party branding exercise, it’s unlikely they would have enough time to recover before the next election," said Maggi. “But Falcon is not alone in facing a political wipeout — both Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh are facing similar challenges.”The BC Conservatives said people want change. “Whether it’s the carbon tax, a broken healthcare system or drugs on our streets, British Columbians are telling us they want to bring back common sense to government,” it said. “Join us on our movement to make it happen in October: conservativebc.ca.” .BC Liberal members voted to change the party’s name to United to try to rebrand it in 2022. READ MORE: BC Liberal Party members vote strongly in favour of name changeMore than 8,000 members voted and four-fifths favoured the name change. “For more than 20 years, our party’s name has been a constant topic of debate,” said Falcon. The poll was conducted through automated telephone interviews from April 23 to 24 with a sample of 962 BC adults. It had a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
