The B.C. NDP and B.C. Liberals focused Saturday on key ridings needed to win the Oct. 24 snap election, attacking each other’s record on public spending.
The NDP used the promise of a new school in Vancouver, and both parties used upgrades to the Richmond Hospital, as a backstop to criticize each other’s spending records.
“This (Richmond) hospital was approved by the B.C. Liberals in 2016. It was then handed to the NDP in 2017 when they took office, and they have accomplished nothing,” Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson said Saturday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, NDP Vancouver-Kingsway candidate Adrian Dix, who was health minister when the election was called, said the Liberals had put no money in the budget for the Richmond Hospital upgrade or come up with a concept plan.
“There was nothing after many years of Liberal government,” said Dix. “We have moved the project forward in a way the Liberals never did.”
The new approved plan for the hospital, announced in July, includes a new emergency department and an intensive care unit, as well as a new nine-storey acute-care tower. The plan will cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than an already estimated $283 million price tag for the new acute-care tower.
Also on Saturday, NDP Vancouver-Fairview candidate George Heyman said that a re-elected NDP government would provide funding to build an elementary school in the Olympic Village area in Vancouver.
Heyman lashed out at the Liberals, saying only a John Horgan NDP government would invest in people, families and the future.
“Up until three years ago, we’ve had 16 years of tax cuts by a (Liberal) government that everybody in British Columbia except the wealthiest and most well connected paid for,” said Heyman.
He said people paid for the tax cuts with increased Medical Services Plan premiums, increased ICBC rates and higher B.C. Hydro rates.
Wilkinson denounced the NDP, saying they make promises but don’t deliver.
“They’ve only completed B.C. Liberal projects and their newly initiated projects like the Pattullo Bridge … nothing has happened. Nothing at all. Empty promises and empty rhetoric from the NDP versus construction and delivered promises from the B.C. Liberals,” he said.
The NDP have also failed to deliver on a $400 renters’ rebate and $10-a-day daycare, said Wilkinson. “We say the issue is: Can you trust John Horgan and the NDP?”
While the parties might argue who funded what project, both the NDP and Liberals have invested billions in infrastructure during their terms in power, the NDP in the ’90s and its recent 3½-year term, and the Liberals during a 16-year reign that ended in 2017. The NDP have promised to implement the renters’ rebate and make progress on $10-a-day daycare.
The war of words comes as the two parties battle for potential swing ridings needed to form a majority government.
The NDP hope to swing at least one of the four Richmond ridings. In particular, they have their eyes on Richmond-Queensborough, won by the Liberals by only 300 votes in 2017.
Vancouver-False Creek, where the NDP announced the new elementary school, is also considered a key battleground riding, won by the Liberals by 400 votes in 2017.
Green Leader Sonia Furstenau was in Victoria Saturday, which is considered another potential swing riding.
Former Green leader Andrew Weaver is not running, and his Oak Bay-Gordon Head seat could be up for grabs for the Greens, Liberals or NDP.
Furstenau announced a high-level “livable cities” plan that would include investing in transit, walkable neighbourhoods and walking and biking infrastructure.
There were no details or a cost attached to the Greens’ plan.
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B.C. Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau says COVID-19 has highlighted the benefit and need for more outdoor spaces and walkable neighbourhoods in our cities.
, which Furstenau unveiled Saturday in Victoria, promises expanded provincial funding for projects such as bike lanes, trails, parks, community spaces and pedestrian-only streets.
“People are using outdoor spaces as one of the only areas where we can socialize while adhering to social distancing guidelines. As businesses have slowly reopened, we’ve seen them expand out onto our streets in order to take advantage of the relative safety of serving outdoors,” Furstenau said. “As we recover from COVID-19, we need to think about how we can build stronger communities. I’ve spoken a lot already in this campaign about the need for a recovery that fights climate change and spurs innovation.”
In response to the pandemic, many B.C. cities have allowed restaurants to construct temporary patios with additional seating on sidewalks and roadways as a way to offset COVID-19 capacity restrictions ordered by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
Furstenau said the Greens will work with local governments to ensure those expanded patio programs become permanent.
She also said the Greens, if elected, will make electric bikes more accessible by removing the PST from their price, requiring commercial premises to provide secure bike parking with charging capabilities, and creating more public bike storage options.
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The B.C. provincial election will be held Oct. 24.
This is your daily campaign trail update with everything you need for Oct. 10, 2020.
This page will be updated throughout the day, with developments added as they happen.
WHERE THE LEADERS ARE TODAY
Andrew Wilkinson, Liberal:
The Liberal leader will be making a healthcare announcement in Richmond at 1:30 p.m. The event will be streamed on the
The Green leader has some meetings in her Cowichan Valley electoral district this morning before heading to Victoria for a 12:30 p.m. platform announcement on housing, transit and livable communities at Fernwood Square (1291 Gladstone Avenue).
John Horgan, NDP
: The NDP leader hasn’t released his weekend itinerary, but his party will be making 10 a.m. education announcement at Olympic Village in Vancouver. Vancouver candidates Brenda Bailey and George Heyman will be attending. Vancouver-Kingsway candidate Adrian Dix will visit the Richmond Hospital at noon for a healthcare announcement.
B.C. Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau says COVID-19 has highlighted the benefit and need for more outdoor spaces and walkable neighbourhoods in our cities.
The Greens’ livable cities plan, which the Furstenau released Saturday in Victoria, promises expanded provincial funding for projects such as bike lanes, trails, parks, community spaces, and pedestrian-only streets.
“People are using outdoor spaces as one of the only areas where we can socialize while adhering to social distancing guidelines. As businesses have slowly reopened, we’ve seen them expand out onto our streets in order to take advantage of the relative safety of serving outdoors,” Furstenau said. “As we recover from COVID-19, we need to think about how we can build stronger communities. I’ve spoken a lot already in this campaign about the need for a recovery that fights climate change and spurs innovation.”
Campaigning during a pandemic meant some obvious changes: Zoom calls replaced rallies, candidates elbow bump instead of shaking hands, and they don’t kiss babies. There are no more selfies with voters — photos are taken an awkward two metres apart, smiles hidden by face masks.
How the party leaders have responded to the new pandemic rules, though, provides a glimpse inside their personalities, as well as the realities of their election machines.
We followed the Liberals’ Andrew Wilkinson, NDP’s John Horgan, and Greens’ Sonia Furstenau for a day to compare and contrast how they campaign during a pandemic.
The NDP election campaign is tapping into people’s urge to protest by launching online petitions opposing key elements of the Liberal platform and in support of taxes on speculators and free contraception.
A petition embedded in a Facebook ad in favour of the popular Speculation and Vacancy Tax — and opposing the Liberals’ pledge to replace it — has collected more than 6,000 digital signatures, according to the NDP campaign.
Tearing a page from the opposition playbook, a new set of ads have appeared urging people to sign up in support of Premier John Horgan’s recovery benefit of $1,000 per family or $500 per individual (1,545 signatures) and opposing Liberal bailouts for “big business and the wealthy.”
The NDP and B.C. Liberals both issued a promise on Friday that, if elected, their respective governments would impose a 15 per cent cap on fees paid to food delivery apps.
B.C. restaurants, dealing with COVID-19 related restriction on capacity and operating hours, have relied heavily on customers placing delivery orders through third-party apps, such as Uber Eats and DoorDash, to stay afloat during the pandemic.
However, some restaurants have complained that some apps charge restaurants up to 30 per cent in addition to a delivery fee paid by the customer.
David Eby, NDP candidate for Vancouver Point Grey, said Friday if third-party apps don’t voluntarily cap fees at 15 per cent, an NDP government would move to regulate a six-month temporary cap to protect B.C.’s restaurant industry, and the 180,000 people it supports.
The B.C. Liberals also put out a statement Friday in which they also promised to cap online food delivery charges at 15 per cent.
WHAT THE LEADERS ARE SAYING:
Sonia Furstenau, Green:
“For too long our governments have thought in four-year election cycles at the expense of a secure future. Now we are in the midst of a climate emergency and the other parties still continue to approve and heavily subsidize massive fossil fuel projects that plan to operate for the next 40 years.”
John Horgan, NDP:
“Before COVID-19 hit, we had begun fixing the problems created through years of the BC Liberals working for people at the top while making ordinary people pay the price,”
Andrew Wilkinson, Liberal:
“The COVID-19 pandemic has hit low-income families harder than most, which is why $10-a-day child care now, not later — on top of eliminating the PST for one year — will mean huge savings for those who need it most.”
A post shared by Sonia Furstenau (@soniafurstenau) on Oct 8, 2020 at 6:12pm PDT
Time is flying by on the campaign trail – but we’ve still got lots of work left to do! I’m looking forward to talking to more people and sharing our plans to help people get back on their feet. Thanks for a great week! pic.twitter.com/hIqXuvM0BV
The VSB wants the Olympic Village school, along with a new school for Coal Harbour, built by 2023.
The NDP previously blamed the Vancouver School Board for a delay in opening a new school, while the school board said the education ministry did not offer up funds.
Vancouver candidates Brenda Bailey (Vancouver-False Creek) and George Heyman (Vancouver-Fraserview) made the announcement on Saturday morning.
“I know from living and working in this community that this new school will make worlds of difference to the young families that call False Creek home, giving them more time to enjoy our beautiful city,” Bailey said in a statement. “I chose to run for the B.C. NDP because of their strong track record on delivering the services that families need, and today’s announcement is just another example.”
With a file from Canadian Press
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Campaigning during a pandemic meant some obvious changes: Zoom calls replaced rallies, candidates elbow bump instead of shaking hands, and they don’t kiss babies. There are no more selfies with voters — photos are taken an awkward two metres apart, smiles hidden by face masks.
How the party leaders have responded to the new pandemic rules, though, provides a glimpse inside their personalities, as well as the realities of their election machines.
This is the first campaign as party leader for Liberal Andrew Wilkinson, a former doctor who is COVID cautious and a notoriously private person who drives to election stops in a compact car with only one staffer. After the day’s events are done, he returns home to his Vancouver-Quilchena riding, where he makes campaign calls inside his now-adult son’s former bedroom, which he has converted into an office.
By contrast, the more gregarious NDP leader, John Horgan, travels to morning appearances with about 10 people in a bus large enough to provide social distancing, and later returns to a Vancouver hotel, where he lives with his team, who are all from the Victoria area. He spends much of his time surrounded by his campaign crew in the hotel’s large ballroom, the dance floor now a broadcast studio.
The Greens’ Sonia Furstenau has mainly focused her campaign on Vancouver Island, where her party wants to hold its three ridings. It is a lower-budget affair, focused on cramming in as many media appearances as possible. She often drives herself between events where her adult son snaps pictures to populate the party’s Instagram account.
We spent a day with each of these three leaders this week, travelling with them to witness their COVID-era campaigns.
On Tuesday, we followed Wilkinson, who spent most of the day in Maple Ridge and Surrey ridings, where the Liberals lost seats to the NDP in 2017 that they are trying to win back.
We shadowed Horgan on Wednesday as he visited some Vancouver and New Westminster ridings, and then spoke with candidates, media and voters by Zoom or by phone.
On Friday, we spent time with Furstenau in Nanaimo and Shawnigan Lake. The NDP is trying to push her out of her Cowichan Valley riding, so, unlike Horgan and Wilkinson, she has to return often to hold the line in her own backyard through pop-up, COVID-friendly campaign events launched from the back of her SUV.
“The world is upside down,” Horgan says. “As leaders we are trying to find different ways to engage.”
Tuesday: Andrew Wilkinson
When Andrew Wilkinson’s alarm goes off at 6 a.m., his first order of business is to feed his labrador Rosie and take her outside.
“I’m not allowed to do anything before Rosie’s had her walk,” he said.
After a cup of tea, he goes for a 30-minute bike ride around Queen Elizabeth Park, some cherished alone time “to think and contemplate where the day’s going to go.”
Where the day is going to go is confirmed at a daily 8 a.m. conference call with the Liberal’s war room, including Emile Scheffel, the party’s executive director, and Sarah Weddell, his chief of staff before the election call.
“In the pandemic, of course, we’re keeping our distance. So I never actually physically see Emile and Sarah,” Wilkinson says. “We’re working in our own little bubbles.”
They discuss what they learned overnight about the NDP campaign, and how that will shape what Wilkinson says that day. He then gets into a mid-sized blue car with only one person, Jennifer Chalmers, who was his deputy chief of staff, but now runs his on-the-ground campaign — a job that, during COVID, also includes being the chauffeur.
Chalmers good-naturedly laughs at her extra pandemic role, especially since she hasn’t owned a car for 20 years. “I’ve been on two leader’s tours now and this one is definitely different,” she said.
She’s the only person, outside immediate family, who’s in Wilkinson’s bubble. The rest of the Liberal “tour team” interacts with the leader at events only at a distance, while wearing masks.
The Liberals typically do one main announcement each morning, often in a key Metro Vancouver riding. But the audience is limited to a media pool camera operator, a small group of campaign staffers, and technicians who stream the press conference live. There is no throng of journalists travelling with the leader. There is no cheering group of partisan supporters.
“It’s sometimes described as this disembodied campaign,” Wilkinson said. “It’s almost all electronic.”
This day, the main campaign event is at the home of Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows candidate, Cheryl Ashlie — on a middle-class Maple Ridge street, dotted with several blue Liberal signs and not a hint of orange. “No NDP signs visible any where on your street!” an enthusiastic Wilkinson says.
The announcement is one of the Liberals’ largest campaign promises, to end ICBC’s monopoly on car insurance. But as Wilkinson speaks, a man with a shopping cart overflowing with recyclables rolls loudly down the street.
When asked later about the man, Wilkinson said the “NDP’s approach to homelessness and addiction” has caused “disarray” in places like Maple Ridge. The Liberals, if elected, will put money in this man’s pockets by killing the PST for one year, Wilkinson said, although his critics argue the bare essentials that impoverished people spend money on, such as groceries and rent, aren’t subject to the PST anyway.
The party’s daily itinerary will sometimes include only one campaign event on the road, but this day Wilkinson also stops in three Surrey ridings which the NDP snatched from the Liberals in 2017.
At the Surrey-Fleetwood campaign office, he chats with candidate Garry Thind’s family, including a son doing his online Grade 3 class, and one supporter. He then calls local voters, promising one woman that a Liberal government would build needed infrastructure in Surrey, but mostly reaching answering machines.
“Modern living. No one answers the phone,” Wilkinson laughs.
He spoke to a few more supporters gathered outside Dave Hans’s campaign office in Surrey Guildford and
then dropped by an indoor soccer facility in the Surrey-Panorama riding where he rolled a ball under his dress shoe for a few seconds and had a brief visit with three men involved in the new business.
This campaign appears to be an uphill battle for the parties to interact with voters and get their messages out, and that is more pronounced for Wilkinson — a newish leader whom the public largely doesn’t know and who lags behind the NDP in the polls.
“We feel really confident that as voters tune into the campaign and see Andrew more often,” Scheffel said, “that we are going to narrow the gap and hopefully pull off an underdog victory.”
Videos released on social media and in electronic town halls, produced in the Liberals’ glossy studio in the Wall Centre, play a major role in this campaign. Scheffel says they reach more people than traditional election stops, but are still not a replacement for in-person pitches.
“It’s one thing to see somebody’s face over Zoom or hear their voice over a telephone town hall, but that’s different than the voter getting the opportunity to size the leader up in person and get a feel for who they are in real life. And I think that is the piece that is missing from this campaign,” Scheffel said.
Wilkinson had been scheduled this afternoon to make campaign phone calls, and then shoot a video encouraging students to vote, but both were cancelled when the NDP released its platform that morning. Instead, he headed straight home for a 3 p.m. Zoom call with Scheffel, Weddell, and some policy experts to discuss how to respond to the NDP promises.
Wilkinson took the lengthy call from his home office. On a typical afternoon, he receives draft materials for the next day’s campaign stops, which he reads over dinner, and then discusses edits he wants to make during the nightly 8 p.m. phone call with the campaign team.
On Saturdays, Wilkinson holds an 8 a.m. Zoom call for all candidates during which they “highlight a few success stories” on the campaign trail “because this is new to everybody.”
While there is still campaigning on the weekends, Wilkinson also does his laundry on Saturday and irons his own shirts on Sunday to get ready for the next onslaught of events. There is no room in his tight bubble for a dry cleaner.
This long weekend will be quieter than usual, as he’ll spend the holiday with only his wife and two grown kids who live at home. “The political Thanksgiving is reduced to the family bubble. No visitors, no opportunity to share the turkey with anybody.”
Wednesday: John Horgan
John Horgan usually rises in his Vancouver hotel room around 6:30 a.m., but on this day he awoke earlier to a sad text from his wife, Ellie: Her father had just died.
He wanted to rush home to Langford to comfort her, but he was in the middle of an election with a full campaign schedule,
which is largely focused on vote-rich Lower Mainland ridings
. He phoned his son in Sooke, who went to see his mom, but the NDP leader was visibly shaken at being away from his wife.
“If (my son) was not in town, I would have been just distraught. We’ve been together forever, we met the first day of university and been together ever since. So she supported me so much. And on the day that she needs support, I wasn’t there for her,” Horgan said.
It was not a typical morning. But it would become a typical electioneering day — go over his speaking notes and itinerary with his campaign manager, and grab
breakfast at the downtown Vancouver hotel where the restaurant staff “have become my new family.”
He then climbed into the type of large bus that leaders often rent for election tours, but this time it’s not packed with journalists and NDP staffers. During this race there are tables where Horgan and about 10 others sit spaced apart, wearing masks: a half dozen campaign workers, the video tech team, and an RCMP officer, who is required since Horgan is still premier.
The NDP crew stays in the same hotel as Horgan and have become each other’s bubble. They won’t be seeing family or friends this Thanksgiving weekend.
At the day’s first campaign stop, outside B.C. Place Stadium, Horgan spots a group of schoolchildren waving enthusiastically to him through a large window. He runs over to take a selfie with the kids in the background. It’s the type of moment that is rare in this campaign, especially for Horgan, who says he misses the energy that comes from wading into groups of supporters.
At the press conference, where he promises a 10-year plan to improve cancer treatment in B.C., Horgan is joined by the NDP’s Vancouver-False Creek candidate, tech entrepreneur Brenda Bailey, who is trying to snatch the seat from Liberal Sam Sullivan.
The announcement is witnessed by a small group of mask-wearing people: some staffers, a couple of journalists, a production crew that broadcasts the event live, and a woman in a wheelchair who asks Horgan about access to an expensive pharmaceutical drug.
Most reporters join remotely, and when questions begin only one asks about the cancer plan, with the rest peppering Horgan about the campaign: Is the $1,000 COVID payment to British Columbians just a crass way to buy votes? Will the $400 annual renters’ rebate really help when it means just $33 a month?
“$33 will help when you don’t have $33,” Horgan fires back.
After the press conference, he replaces a navy suit jacket with a blue windbreaker and a matching blue plaid face mask, and proudly shows off his new brown Doc Martens — his first online purchase. He
catches a small shuttle ferry to Granville Island, where he and Bailey main street, something Horgan’s done little of this election.
“One of the things about a Zoom-focused campaign, you don’t get to do as much of this.”
COVID rules don’t allow the candidate to shake hands or give out pamphlets, but Bailey has a QR code on her phone which voters can scan to download her election literature.
As Horgan and Bailey randomly approach people on Granville Island, they risk getting an earful for calling an early election during a pandemic. But, remarkably, the dozen or so people they speak with largely range from those politely disinterested in politics to others who seem downright excited to meet him.
“Hi, Premier Horgan!” a mother with a four-month-old baby calls out to him. While Horgan gushes over the baby, the woman tells Bailey: “I just sent in my mail-in ballot today and I voted for you.”
Inside shops, the owners only talk about how hard the economic slowdown has been on their businesses, and Horgan tells them about provincial and federal efforts to help.
The bus takes a detour to grab takeout lunch at New Westminster’s Burger Heaven, where the owner names burgers after political parties and tallies how many sell during the campaign. The NDP handily won this riding in 2017, so not surprisingly the party’s patty was far out in front (64 orders) compared to just 38 for the Green burger and 37 for the Liberal one.
The team heads back to the hotel ballroom, complete with studio lights, speakers, and several large TVs, where Horgan “Zooms into places in the afternoon,” says James Smith, who is on his fourth NDP leader’s tour. Missing this time is the instant feedback candidates get from supporters at big rallies.
“Campaign buses don’t run on diesel, they run on adrenalin,” Smith laughs.
Horgan’s 1 p.m. Zoom call this day is with four candidates and about 10 ethnic-media reporters, who questioned the premier on topics such as systemic racism and long-term care worker wages.
After a quick briefing with his staff, Horgan retreats to his hotel room for 30 minutes with a list of voters to phone, and then is back at 2:30 p.m. for the next Zoom call, this one with seven new candidates, who have each brought one supporter to introduce to the premier.
It is, of course, a full NDP love-in, which certainly pumps up the candidates’ confidence. But the afternoon ends without any interaction with the public.
“Is it a challenge to not be in groups of large numbers of people? Absolutely,” Horgan concedes, although he insists they get their messages out through social media.
His critics argue the pandemic election has put Wilkinson, the relatively new Liberal leader, and Furstenau, the even-newer Green leader, at a disadvantage since it will be difficult for voters to get to know them.
Horgan insists he has no regrets, though, about the election call. Indeed, like the burger poll, the NDP is leading the other parties in public opinion polls at the moment.
In the evenings, Horgan makes more phone calls and reads background materials before going to bed and doing it all again the next day.
He will get a break this weekend, though, as his team has cancelled several events so Horgan can go home to see his grieving wife, and their son. “We’ll have some turkey and play some Settlers of Catan,” he said. “I get a free pass from the campaign.”
Friday: Sonia Furstenau
Sonia Furstenau does not need an alarm. Every day during this election campaign, at 5:59 a.m., she wakes up automatically on her own, pauses, and enjoys the brief confusion of a sleepy brain before the jam-packed day officially begins.
“Then, the descending reality of my life comes back,” she says.
The visual representation of that campaign life is her iPhone calendar, which is a complete wall of purple bookings from the earliest hours of the morning until at least 8 to 9 p.m. Much of it is media. She has a standing policy: Say Yes to every media request for an interview.
“They are just stacked, literally, one on top of the other,” says Furstenau. “Last election, we had to work really hard to get press interest. That’s not a problem, this time it’s literally a tsunami.”
Before the tsunami begins, though, there is a moment of calm. Furstenau began meditating in August, when the overlapping legislative session, the Green leadership campaign and rampant early election speculation coalesced into a stress bomb.
She now begins each morning in her home office, listening to an app that guides her through a 20-minute meditation.
“I’ve found that really helps,” she says. “And it will often kind of set me up for the day.”
After meditation, it’s a round of early morning phone and Skype interviews.
Furstenau’s son Nicholas Miller, 26, is a barista and makes her the first and only cup of coffee she allows herself in the day.
He’s also a chef, events planner, photographer, videographer, digital media specialist and general jack-of-all-trades, who quietly shadows his mother throughout the day, slipping her protein bars and snacks when she forgets to eat.
Furstenau has lost 10 pounds during the campaign, due to skipping meals for work. She won’t drink any alcohol. “It’s the most disciplined I’ve ever been in my life,” she says. During the day, her family and staff just try to get her to eat.
At 8:30 a.m. Furstenau holds her campaign call of the day with Jillian Oliver, her chief strategist, and Maeve Macguire, her press secretary. Oliver ran Furstenau’s recent leadership campaign while also giving birth to her first child. On election conference calls, you can hear the baby in the background.
After this, more media interviews.
The Greens hold a 12:30 p.m. press conference daily, where Furstenau announces some plank of the party platform and takes questions from journalists.
Today, she is in Nanaimo, flanked by three mid-Island candidates at the Nanaimo Conference Centre.
Furstenau, Maguire and Miller depart together from Shawnigan Lake in Furstenau’s electric Nissan Leaf.
While you might expect Miller or Maguire to drive, so Furstenau could work, that doesn’t happen. Furstenau gets anxious as a passenger, when she’s not in control. She likes to drive, safely, with plenty of distance between vehicles. And so, Furstenau does media interviews and phone calls using a hands-free device while driving herself to her events.
In Nanaimo, Furstenau stick handles a press conference on climate change, while Miller runs a video camera and darts around taking photos for the B.C. Green Instagram feed. He slides between reporters and climbs a chair to get the best shots.
Furstenau watches her son. “It brings me joy,” she says of having him with her at all the events.
There is little prep for the press conference or the media scrums. Furstenau says this is intentional. She knows her issues after 3.5 years as an MLA. Unlike Horgan and Wilkinson, who are surrounded by advisers trying to frame their message with speaking notes, Furstenau simply says what she wants. The result, she says, is that no matter the outcome of this election she has no regrets.
Furstenau is the only party leader who has to carve out time to campaign in her riding. That’s because, after she supported the NDP government for 3.5 years, the NDP is now aggressively trying to unseat her in Cowichan Valley.
“It feels personal,” Furstenau says. “Maybe it is personal.”
This afternoon, she takes her B.C. Green SUV out to Shawnigan Lake’s village core and opens the back to create a mobile campaign office, where she waves at passing vehicles and invites people to come to speak with her at a social distance, while wearing a mask.
In the early evening, she, like Horgan and Wilkinson, has rallies and candidate events by video conference. It’s impersonal and awkward, without the crowd. “It’s not quite the same,” she says. “I don’t like Zoom.”
At 8 to 9 p.m. Furstenau pauses her day and focuses on her husband, Blaise, her daughter, 13, and younger son, 14. Her daughter tells her about school. “There’s no phone, there’s no distraction, maybe we’ll watch like a Babysitter Club episode together,” she says.
Then bed. Despite the adrenalin of the day, Furstenau says she has no problem sleeping.
“I sleep really well because at the end of the day, I don’t have regrets. I’m giving it everything I’ve got my team is incredible. And I won’t look back and say, you know, I wish I’d done something differently. I’m just being me.”
Until Thanksgiving, Furstenau had not taken a single day off for the campaign. Her plan Monday is for a partial day off. A bit of mental decompression, combined with a family dinner and preparation for Tuesday’s debate.
