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  #1  
Old Posted Jul 5, 2018, 1:38 AM
Docere Docere is offline
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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?
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  #2  
Old Posted Jul 5, 2018, 1:41 AM
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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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  #3  
Old Posted Jul 5, 2018, 2:11 AM
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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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  #4  
Old Posted Jul 5, 2018, 1:38 PM
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Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue View Post
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).
Both are liberal, But yes I agree Seattle and Bay Area are to the more extreme left. Boston has always been a Kennedy type town, a more relaxed liberal. Boston and new england area there are a lot of rules and police seem more of a military influence. West coast is what you see on the news these days which i wont get into. Seattle is one of my favorite cities when it came to the Nirvana/Pearl Jam days but how the city is ran really turns me off.
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  #5  
Old Posted Jul 5, 2018, 5:07 PM
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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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  #6  
Old Posted Jul 5, 2018, 7:28 PM
Docere Docere is offline
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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...
What "vote-splitting" on the right are you referring to? The BC Conservative Party is only slightly more formidable than the Trillium Party of Ontario.
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  #7  
Old Posted Jul 5, 2018, 8:06 PM
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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.
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  #8  
Old Posted Jul 5, 2018, 9:59 PM
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Ontario also has lots of immigrants and that hasn't stopped Ford from being elected Premier.
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  #9  
Old Posted Jul 5, 2018, 10:08 PM
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Originally Posted by Xelebes View Post
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. . .
This is my answer as well. Horgan actually came out with a rational plan to deal with it. I agree that if it messes up, we might see a different candidate come out next time around.

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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  #10  
Old Posted Jul 5, 2018, 10:21 PM
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Ontario also has lots of immigrants and that hasn't stopped Ford from being elected Premier.
I was actually thinking about that as I was writing my post, but didn't have a good counter so I didn't talk about it. I honestly don't know how to reconcile this with a bullet proof argument, but the one thing I can think of is the cultural difference between white Europeans in the West and in the East. White European descendants on the West coast (and I'm including the Pararies in the mix) are a lot less "cosmopolitan" than the ones in the East. Maybe immigrants are more comfortable with voting in a party that represents the core values of European descent people in Ontario, but not so in the West as the core values of European descent people are a lot more right wing.
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  #11  
Old Posted Jul 5, 2018, 10:32 PM
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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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  #12  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2018, 5:34 AM
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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.
You're thinking about Vancouver Island white people. They are very left leaning. But if you look at white people outside of Vancouver, you essentially have Red Deer!!White people in Kelowna, Penticton etc.... are just as conservative (even more so probably) as people in Alberta. And in Vancouver itself it's not that different. White folks in North Vancouver (district) are also very Albertan.

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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Old Posted Jul 6, 2018, 1:30 PM
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You're thinking about Vancouver Island white people. They are very left leaning. But if you look at white people outside of Vancouver, you essentially have Red Deer!!White people in Kelowna, Penticton etc.... are just as conservative (even more so probably) as people in Alberta. And in Vancouver itself it's not that different. White folks in North Vancouver (district) are also very Albertan.

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.
The conservative people in Kelowna are from Alberta. And North Vancouver has no similarity with Alberta whatsoever. Are you from out of town?
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  #14  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2018, 9:09 PM
Docere Docere is offline
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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.

Last edited by Docere; Jul 9, 2018 at 10:28 PM.
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  #15  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2018, 9:56 PM
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Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue View Post
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).
Well, to be fair the northern New England areas also had the left wing Bernie Sanders-supporting Vermont, New Hampshire etc.
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  #16  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2018, 10:02 PM
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Originally Posted by Abii View Post
I was actually thinking about that as I was writing my post, but didn't have a good counter so I didn't talk about it. I honestly don't know how to reconcile this with a bullet proof argument, but the one thing I can think of is the cultural difference between white Europeans in the West and in the East. White European descendants on the West coast (and I'm including the Pararies in the mix) are a lot less "cosmopolitan" than the ones in the East. Maybe immigrants are more comfortable with voting in a party that represents the core values of European descent people in Ontario, but not so in the West as the core values of European descent people are a lot more right wing.
White European descendants are also a lot fewer generations removed from the "old country" though out west. British Columbia has tons of people who are only two or three generations removed from the British Isles. Not sure if that makes them any more or less "cosmopolitan" than an Italian-Canadian in Northern Ontario or a Greek Torontonian.

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Originally Posted by Denscity View Post
The conservative people in Kelowna are from Alberta. And North Vancouver has no similarity with Alberta whatsoever. Are you from out of town?
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Originally Posted by Docere View Post

these right-wing "Albertans" in the interior


Are there more people in interior BC that come from, or have family roots of Albertans moving west, or from west coasters moving inland?

Last edited by Capsicum; Jul 6, 2018 at 10:17 PM.
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  #17  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2018, 10:14 PM
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Originally Posted by Docere View Post
Why is this? Real estate boom making people feel less disaffected?
Couldn't you argue also the reverse of more disaffected, not less -- high cost of housing relative to local income might make people more "right wing populist" and anti-globalization and anti-foreigner, and more "nativist" as people seem to suggest.
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  #18  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2018, 11:47 PM
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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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  #19  
Old Posted Jul 7, 2018, 12:08 AM
Docere Docere is offline
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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.
I'm not of the "demographics as destiny" school at all. I was just responding to claims that 1) a large immigrant population makes right-wing populists unelectable in BC and 2) that BC whites are to the right of Ontario whites neither of which I think is true.

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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  #20  
Old Posted Jul 7, 2018, 1:28 AM
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I'm not of the "demographics as destiny" school at all. I was just responding to claims that 1) a large immigrant population makes right-wing populists unelectable in BC and 2) that BC whites are to the right of Ontario whites neither of which I think is true.

BC used to be the populist capital of the country but that seems to have dissipated in the last decade or so.
Where were those claims being made?
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