Why hasn't the right-wing populist wave taken off in BC?
BC used to be the "populist" capital of Canada, with leaders such as Vander Zalm and WAC Bennett (and on the left you had Dave Barrett). The groovy West Coast province also enthusiastically embraced the Reform Party in the 90s.
Fast forward to today "boring" Ontario has Doug Ford as Premier, Quebec is swinging heavily toward the CAQ and even Rachel Notley in Alberta seems to sounding like an "Eastern bastards freeze in the dark" Albertan in order to stave off the united right under Jason Kenney. Meanwhile BC today has "dull and competent" John Horgan as premier, and two patricians leading the Liberal and Green parties. The BC Conservative Party went nowhere. Andrew Wilkinson's main concern seems to be the "plight" of the $3 million homeowner. There were no right-wing populist challengers in the BC Liberal leadership race. Why is this? Real estate boom making people feel less disaffected? West Coast culture in general? The name "Liberal" scaring away the hard-right from the BC Liberal Party? |
I don’t know why, but I’ve heard that west coast (including Seattle, The Bay Area, etc) is generally more liberal (compared to the east coast, i.e. Boston).
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Largely it has to do with John Horgan actually dealing with the external threat. There was a lot of anger prior to Horgan's election under Christie's government about the external threat. If Horgan is successful, there is a chance that he can stem the populist wave in BC. If he fails. . .
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It's there, it's just horribly diluted by a split in votes on the right coupled with high immigration and an influx of Alberta's best and brightest... Thank Goodness...
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Even though immigrants are mostly "conservative" when it comes to certain social ideas (i.e. regarding gays etc...) they are also wary of voting for a party that sees them as the "other." At least that's how I've always seen it. Nearly 60% of the population in GVR is Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Iranian, Indian, Pakistani etc.. etc... If not first generation, they're second or third generation. I was a kid when we moved to Canada and I would never vote for a BC conservative, no matter what.
The Liberal Party in BC is very pro business and there's no reason to look elsewhere anyway. |
Ontario also has lots of immigrants and that hasn't stopped Ford from being elected Premier.
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And because we only have 2 big parties, one of which already had a leader and mostly serves those that like our housing prices anyway, the NDP was unlikely to produce a crazy right-wing populist. Not sure that left-wing populism would be an effective response to the current issue anyway. |
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I don't think BC whites are more culturally conservative than Ontario whites - if anything the opposite is probably true. There may be more "ethnic whites" in Ontario but that cuts both ways.
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In any case, when BC Liberals are so pro business, there's really no reason to vote for a conservative party as far as immigrants and second/third gen immigrants are concerned. Why risk it? That's how I see it at least. I'm getting the best of both worlds if I vote Liberal. |
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One question is why do these right-wing "Albertans" in the interior keep deferring to a Van elite leadership? There is nothing "populist" about Wilkinson whatsoever.
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Are there more people in interior BC that come from, or have family roots of Albertans moving west, or from west coasters moving inland? |
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Docere, might I point out that your focus on demographics seems a bit more obsessive and obscuring more than it is illuminating. It serves to distract you so that you can talk about demographics rather than talking about politics.
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BC used to be the populist capital of the country but that seems to have dissipated in the last decade or so. |
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