Election 2026: Campaign Roundup - Day 5

Welcome to Day 5 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 5:

• BC NDP Leader David Eby says he would increase the speculation and vacancy tax from 1% to 2% for domestic speculators and from 4% to 5% for foreign speculators. His campaign is also proposing a new tax on finished condos left unsold for more than a year, starting at 2% and increasing by 1% each additional year. The NDP says the measure could put up to 5,000 additional condos onto the market.
  
  
• BC Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson criticized David Eby’s proposed housing taxes, arguing that additional taxes and regulations will make homes more expensive rather than more affordable. Doerkson pointed to falling housing starts, lower home sales and empty finished homes as evidence of what he described as the NDP’s housing record, and said a BC Conservative government would focus on reducing the cost and regulatory burden of building and buying homes.
  
  
• Former BC Conservative leadership candidate Yuri Fulmer says he will not run in the upcoming election, citing his young children and saying “this is not my time.” Fulmer said he remains a Conservative, endorsed Lorne Doerkson and expressed his full support for the current party leader. He also called on centre-right voters to unite behind the BC Conservatives and defeat David Eby and the NDP.
  
  
• The parties continue to fill out their slates. CentreBC announced Kim Lockhart in Ladysmith-Oceanside, Kuldeep Rangi in Delta North, Raman Sharma in Surrey City Centre and Michael Davis in Vancouver-Point Grey. The BC Conservatives also announced Megan Knight in Surrey South. Knight is the sitting mayor of White Rock, having been elected mayor in 2022 after previously serving on city council from 2014 to 2018. The party also announced Joshua Dahling in Mid Island-Pacific Rim and Sacha Peter in Richmond Centre. OneBC leader Dallas Brodie says the party has been “overwhelmed” by interest from prospective candidates, but not quite ready to announce any new candidate yet.
  
  
• There are several ways to vote in the provincial election. Advance voting runs October 16th - 21st from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. Voters can also vote on election day, at a district electoral office, or by mail. Vote-by-mail packages should be requested as soon as possible. You can find all of the information and locations on the Elections BC website.

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