Letter to the Editor: More vote splitting and next steps

NOTE: The back-and-forth between Tyler Holte and Alan Forseth continues. It was sparked after Holte’s original Letter to the Editor, “BC NDP’s best friend.” All the responses that followed can be read by heading to the Opinion section on Energeticcity.ca.

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — I’d like to thank Mr. Forseth for his words. I am glad that we can appear to agree that electoral reform is needed and would support a healthier democracy.

His preferred “ranked” ballot would certainly address the current situation of the NDP winning seats they have not been able to win for many years. Notably, it looks like John Rustad’s own seat is at risk due to the vote splitting. If only the Green Party had the backbone to force electoral reform in their coalition with the NDP instead of letting the NDP intentionally botch the pitch for it so it could be scrapped.

Respecting his suggestion that BC United should throw in the towel since they are in third place (18% of popular support, whereas the Conservatives have 22%), would he agree that the Conservatives ought to have thrown in the towel prior to October 2023 (i.e., when they were third place). Would he accede to his own argument if it was flipped to a different point in time?

The obvious truth is that neither party is going to throw the towel, so why suggest a course of action that will never be taken? The sad truth is that the Conservatives have thrown in the towel on defeating the NDP by becoming relevant. I am not sure how Mr. Forseth based his belief that BC United would have lost anyway; they received a positive bump in the polls after Kevin Falcon was chosen leader. Didn’t his platform deserve a shot? After all, that platform won the leadership race in the party. 

The damage is done for the right. The NDP will win the election this fall.

The question is what the parties will do afterward. Will they merge and stop the vote splitting (in which case, what was the point of this rise in popularity for the Conservative Party)? Or will they continue to compete and give future elections to the NDP?

I cannot concur with Mr. Forseth’s characterization of Mr. Rustad’s actions surrounding his departure from the BC United Party. If Mr. Rustad wanted to question some climate change policies, why wouldn’t he have that conversation within the party instead of doing it on Twitter?

Let’s not be vague about what policies were being “questioned”: the content of the tweet was to deny that CO2 has an impact on climate change; that’s going to greatly put off many voters in southern ridings that need to be won from the NDP.

Obviously, Mr. Rustad’s sole intention was a provocation. A provocation that would inevitably lead to an ousting if he continued to damage the party’s prospects in current NDP ridings. That said, provoking the ousting sure helped Mr. Rustad play the victim and get him in the limelight. That’s an interesting method to “earn” votes.