Juan de Fuca-Malahat

We have the Greens, of course, also running here on South Vancouver Island.

And accordingly, whether or not the Greens or Centre BC or even 1BC in Juan de Fuca, Malahat, one of the ridings here on the South Island that has the 1BC candidate contesting against the Conservatives in the NDP, to what degree vote splitting itself makes a difference? I'm not sure we know at this point.

Because there is the argument that has been made, and this is a clip that they posted a few days ago with Leader Eleanor Sturck of Centre BC, that some people don't want the extreme.

They want something in the middle.

We had heard about, um, obv- obviously a tweet, which was later deleted by the campaign director, Katie Mer- Merrifield, um, which, uh, people, uh, refer to as very, uh, very much a anti, uh, as an anti-Islam post, uh, from June that as I said she later deleted.

There was a comment today, um, which one of the candidates made as well, uh, in Juan de Fuca, Malahat, uh, which referred to First Nations being conquered.

Uh, but the, the party says, look, it was, it was poorly framed, uh, a- and it wasn't meant that way at all, and they responded to it very quickly.

But it does bring up the brig- broader issue of comments that people make on social media, uh, even at the debates and stuff like that.

People did stories on it, and he got a fair amount of attention.

He won with 60% of the vote.

The candidate in Juan de Fuca, Malahat last time m- made racist comments about Indigenous people for the Conservatives and almost won the riding, just lost by a hair because of a strong Green showing.

But where it can have an impact is on sort of the, uh, the bigger picture.

Oh, and see, and this is interesting.

" 'I was in the room when this happened, and it is appalling,' " a quote, starts the next paragraph, "said David Evans, BC Greens candidate for Juan de Fuca Malahat, who was present at the debate." When did this debate happen? Somebody help me out with this.

Was it last week? Was it the week before? Because if everybody was shocked, if everybody was appalled, if everybody in the room heard this, why did we not see immediate statements, condemnations, et cetera, on social media? Why was this timed to break the day before the municipal election after the debate if indeed it happened earlier and it was as shocking and as important as everybody seems to think it was? That's unclear to me.

Uh, it says, uh, said David Evans, BC Greens candidate for Juan de Fuca Malahat, who was present at the debate, and here's the next quote.

It says, " 'Racist attitudes like this don't belong in our community, in the legislature, or anywhere.

When you're caught saying,' " quote, " 'First Nations have to be conquered,' the response is an apology," the release says.

It says, "At best, that's a candidate who can't speak about First Nations without reaching for the [laughs] language of conquest." It says, "At worst, it's a racist attitude he won't admit.

Either way, he shouldn't be representing this riding," says, uh, the Green's David Evans.

If you believe that conservative purity is such a concern that you're a 1BC supporter, well, again, my apologies, because 1BC, for whatever reason, wasn't able to field candidates in most of the ridings here on South Vancouver Island.

There's one that I know of in Juan de Fuca, Malahat, but the others, apparently, you just don't have that option, despite, supposedly, everybody out there yearning for more conservative purity.

Carson Binda is running in Vancouver, Quilchena.

That's where Dallas Brody's running.

Uh, OneBC only running one candidate that I'm aware of in any of the seven South Island ridings.

That's Juan de Fuca Malahat.

At least that's what I saw as of the registration deadline closing.

So obviously OneBC isn't going to be something that most voters in the Victoria area even could choose.

And the reason it's significant in Juan de Fuca Malahat with there being a OneBC candidate is that introduces the po- the possibility of a vote split among those who would ordinarily vote for the Conservative Party.

There's not gonna be a Conservative vote split in a riding that only has one Conservative option to the degree that there might be otherwise.

And Juan de Fuca Malahat, as we've mentioned any number of times, was one of the closest ridings in the province in 2024, and that was in a situation where there was a forced consolidation of the Conservative vote behind just one blue party.

With other options on offer in that riding, it's unclear if that split will, um, by default or on a de facto basis benefit the NDP.