Liberals out, Tories and NDP after BC

The race in BC is shaping up between The NDP and the Conservatives and the Liberals are falling away. The Conservatives have seen the trend and they know whats its like here in BC. BC voters, especially like to send someone to Ottawa that is going to give the government hell. They want MPs that will stand up for BC. The NDP and Reform party have been trading these voters for years. Not since 1968 and Trudeaumania have voters in rural BC felt any kinship with the Liberals.

With the advent of the Reform party many of those BC voters supported them where they once elected the NDP. The 2001 election of the BC Liberal party and its ties to the federal Liberal party and Stephen Harper's new melded Alliance and Progressive Conservatives helped the NDP bounce back provincially in a big way, perhaps with one more week they would have won the election here.

The 2004 Federal election saw the NDP regain a foothold in Rural BC and Vancouver Island. They came a close second in many other ridings too. This time out its clear the NDP will take some of those seats away from the Conservatives and the Conservative party is fighting back with what CTV calls a Vicious attack ad.

"With one week remaining before the election, the Conservatives have unleashed their own vicious television ad, but this time the target is Jack Layton and his New Democrat Party." - CTV News, January 17, 2006

See the ad for yourself Conservative attack ad. As CTV also pointed out...

"I think what this demonstrates is that they (Conservatives) view the NDP as real competition there," said CTV's Rosemary Thompson.

Many voters in B.C. tend to swing between one of the two parties, and with Liberal fortunes slipping, the Conservatives appear to be targeting those NDP votes, said Brian Laghi of The Globe and Mail. "If you recall, a lot of people who vote NDP, when they have a second choice it will be Tory, and vice versa," Laghi told CTV's Mike Duffy Live. In the early 1990s, the now defunct Reform Party received many of those votes, which were cast in order to punish the Liberals, said Laghi." - CTV News New Conservative attack ad takes aim at Layton, January 17, 2006

Election, Jack Layton, NDP, Canada, Politics, Conservative Party of Canada, Stephen Harper