Election 2026: Campaign Roundup - Day 28

Welcome to Day 28 of our British Columbia 2026 Campaign Roundup!

We're bringing you daily updates on all the policy proclamations, platform promises, and political point-scoring from the campaign trail.

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Campaign Roundup - Day 28:

• With BC’s provincial election entering its final week, NDP Leader David Eby is appealing to Green voters, warning that splitting votes between the two parties could help elect a Conservative government. Eby pointed to the 2024 election, when he says Green votes made the difference between Conservative and NDP candidates in 11 ridings. He acknowledged voter frustration with the snap election but argued the NDP and Greens share a common vision for the province.
  
  
• The BC Conservatives have released their 71-page election platform, projecting $2.62 billion in additional revenue over three years based on higher economic growth and promising to reduce the provincial deficit to $10.8 billion by 2030. The party says spending reviews, a freeze on non-front-line hiring, and staff attrition would generate billions in savings. The NDP disputes the projections, arguing Conservative tax cuts and other promises would create a $6-billion budget gap, while questioning the party’s economic growth assumptions.
  
  
• BC’s parties have outlined competing health-care plans. The NDP promises 1,000 additional training seats for health-care workers, 20 new team-based primary care clinics, regional surgical waitlists, and eight MRI machines and 10 CT scanners. The Conservatives pledge to recruit and retain more doctors and nurses, keep emergency rooms open, and establish a new women and children’s hospital in Surrey. The Greens propose community health centres in every riding, while CentreBC promises a family doctor or nurse practitioner for everyone who wants one by 2031 and $25 million annually to stabilize rural emergency rooms. OneBC supports private care alongside a fully funded public system.
  
  
• On Alberta’s referendum day, BC NDP Leader David Eby reaffirmed his support for a united Canada, saying Alberta and BC share families, jobs, a border, and a long history. Eby also criticized BC Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson over what Eby called separatist views expressed by people in his party and constituency association, including members’ involvement in groups advocating Western independence.
  
  
• Nearly 338,000 British Columbians cast ballots during the first two days of advance voting in the provincial election, representing roughly 9% of eligible voters. Elections BC recorded 137,352 votes on Friday and another 200,609 on Saturday, slightly above the 326,963 ballots cast during the first two days of advance voting in 2024. The early turnout comes amid concerns that overlapping provincial and municipal election campaigns could cause voter fatigue, although turnout in Vancouver and Surrey’s municipal elections increased compared with 2022.

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