Elections BC releases final candidate lists for the 2024 elections

After the candidate filing deadline passed on Saturday, Elections BC has released the final list of candidates for the upcoming provincial election.

There are 323 candidates running in the upcoming provincial elections in 93 districts, and voting day is set for October 19.

B.C. added six new ridings to its political map and changed existing riding boundaries as the province adjusts electoral district boundaries in response to population growth.

The BC New Democratic Party and BC Conservative Party are each fielding 93 candidates, and the BC Green Party has 69 candidates.

The official opposition BC United, whose leader Kevin Falcon last month ended the party’s campaign to avoid splitting votes with the Conservatives, said it had no plans to field any candidates in the election.

There are 40 independent and 14 unaffiliated candidates in the race, some of whom are former BC United candidates.

The Communist Party of British Columbia, the Christian Heritage Party and the Freedom Party are among the parties running candidates in the election.

NDP highlights Tory ‘conspiracies’

The BC NDP said its leader wrote a letter to the Conservative leader on Saturday, calling on him to withdraw from some candidates who have expressed “extreme and dangerous” views.

In a statement sent ahead of the candidate filing deadline, NDP Leader David Eby said some Conservative candidates had previously “put forward anti-democratic conspiracy theories” that claimed the 2020 U.S. election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and that riots among Trump supporters 6 January 2021 were a hoax.

“The promotion of bigotry, disinformation and dangerous conspiracy theories is deeply disturbing and has no place in a democratic society – and certainly not by people seeking the trust of voters to form the next government,” Eby is quoted as saying in his letter.

Asked about the comments Saturday, Conservative Leader John Rustad said he would be happy to compare his candidates to the NDP plan “any day of the week.”

He did not directly address NDP allegations that some candidates supported conspiracy theories.

“We need fresh people who come with great ideas, have passion, want to stand up, say something and just be themselves,” he said. “Frankly, we don’t need a party in this province … under the weak leadership of David Eby that has created these kinds of problems.”