Election 2024: Campaign Roundup - Day 6

Welcome to Day 6 of our British Columbia 2024 Campaign Roundup!

With the 2024 BC election now finally underway, we'll be bringing you daily updates on all the policy proclamations, platform promises, and political point-scoring from the campaign trail.

As always, our work is entirely funded by donations from British Columbians just like you, so if you appreciate the updates, please consider making a one-off donation or signing up as a supporter for just $10 a month - that's just 36 cents per email!

Campaign Roundup - Day 6:

• A new Leger poll shows the BC Conservatives leading with 45% support among decided voters, slightly ahead of the BC NDP at 42%, while the BC Greens hold 10%. Just a few months ago, the BC NDP led in the polls. The pollster says BC Conservative Leader John Rustad is becoming more popular with women and young people.
  
  
• BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau said that her party would maintain a carbon pricing system while increasing rebates for taxpayers. She said that her plan would reduce the burden on households due to the rise in rebates, and a portion of the revenue would be allocated to municipalities.
  
  
• BC Conservative Leader John Rustad promised to bring local power generation to Northwest BC, to lower energy costs. He suggested using sustainable wood waste and leveraging natural gas to bring down costs for those living in Smithers, Terrace, Kitimat, Prince Rupert, and other Northwest communities.
  
  
• The BC Conservatives pointed to a new survey showing that many British Columbians no longer feel safe in their communities. The survey also suggests that 58% of people have seen an increase in the criminal activity in those communities over the last four years.
  
  
• Independent candidate Kevin Kraft is running in the Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream riding and billing himself as a “true independent”. Kraft, who serves as vice-chair of the Regional District of Central Okanagan, says he wants to engage disenfranchised voters and the younger demographic. He says this election presents voters with a unique chance to choose independent candidates who can hold both major parties accountable.
  
  
• Elections BC is implementing new technology to expedite ballot counting. They say that using laptops for voter check-in and electronic tabulators for automatic ballot counting will significantly reduce wait times to a maximum of five minutes and enable 98% of votes to be reported within an hour of polls closing.

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