VANCOUVER — British Columbians go to the polls on Saturday after a too-close-to-call campaign that saw David Eby's New Democrats and John Rustad's B.C. Conservatives tangle over housing, health care and the overdose crisis — as well as plastic straws and a billionaire's billboards.
Forecasters say election day will be soaked in several parts of the province by heavy rain from an atmospheric river system. But the campaign has already been drenched in negativity, with Eby and Rustad each devoted to telling British Columbians why they shouldn't vote for the other. The NDP's election platform mentions Rustad more than 50 times, compared to only 29 times for Eby, while the B.
C. Conservative platform names Eby 50 times, and Rustad only 11 times. "I hope we never see another election like this," Eby said this week in Nanaimo, describing the tone of the campaign where he felt compelled to tell voters about controversial public statements made by Rustad and some of his candidates.
"We don't call people who are gay 'groomers,'" he said. "We don't tell Indigenous people that what they experienced in residential schools wasn't real. We don't propose that health-care professionals be put in front of an international tribunal similar to the trial of the Nazis called Nuremberg 2.
0." Rustad, who campaigned in Nanaimo on the same day Eby visited the Vancouver Island city, said the NDP leader has consistently attempted to shift focus away from what he says are the real issues facing the pr.