B.C. party leaders prepare for high stakes debate in a close election

British Columbia’s political leaders are preparing to square off in the only televised debate of the election, and the main rivals have set the stage with duelling proposals to tackle crime and public safety.
The stakes are especially high for New Democrat Party Leader David Eby and Conservative Leader John Rustad, who appear to be in a dead heat among decided and leaning voters with less than two weeks until the Oct. 19 election. The second – and final – debate between premier hopefuls on Tuesday, which will also include Green Leader Sonia Furstenau, offers the opportunity to win undecided voters who will hold the key to victory.
On Monday, Mr. Rustad and Melissa De Genova, the Conservative candidate for Vancouver-Yaletown, held a news conference in downtown Vancouver, steps from a headline-grabbing knife attack last month where one man died and another was injured.
The Conservative Leader described a province “overrun by crime,” and pledged to restore safety by toughening charge assessment guidelines to crack down on bail offenders; hire more sheriffs and judges; advocate for mandatory minimum sentences for violent offenders; and create a new statutory court to hold trials for small criminal offences within one week of arrest.
Kyla Lee, a lawyer at Acumen Law in Vancouver, called Mr. Rustad’s plan “nonsensical.” B.C.’s charge assessment guideline, which requires a substantial likelihood of conviction, has been highlighted as a gold standard in numerous federal reports for cutting down on court delays and reducing the likelihood of a wrongful conviction, she said.
As well, a new statutory court would be impossible to implement, Ms. Lee said, as it would require “a thousand more Crown counsel,” who would have to provide all disclosure to defence counsel effectively immediately upon arrest and not give people enough time to locate a lawyer.
Mr. Rustad’s announcement followed Mr. Eby’s promise during a Surrey news conference on Sunday to “give police the tools they need to get illegal guns off our streets.” The NDP Leader contrasted his party’s stance with that of Mr. Rustad, who has balked at enforcing new federal gun laws.
“It is unfathomable to me that anyone who would seek to run to be the leader of the province of British Columbia would direct the police not to enforce federal laws designed to go after gangsters, criminals, people who beat up family members,” said Mr. Eby, who was flanked by four NDP candidates with law enforcement backgrounds.
Mr. Rustad had been asked several times about Bill C-21, the federal Liberal gun-control law that received royal assent last December. It enshrined a freeze on the sale, purchase and transfer of handguns; established a Criminal Code definition for assault-style firearms and an associated ban; and enacted new regulations targeting ghost guns and other illegally made firearms.
“There are law-abiding gun owners in this province that are being targeted by the federal government and I disagree with that,” Mr. Rustad said during a leaders’ debate last Tuesday. “I will not see our precious dollars that are being spent on law enforcement going after law-abiding [gun owners].”
After a busy stretch in the first two weeks of the campaign, the candidates were expected to focus on debate preparation for most of Tuesday. The debate is scheduled for broadcast from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. PT on Tuesday on Global BC, BC1, CITY-TV, CTV Vancouver and Omni BC.
Last week, the leaders traded shots in the only other debate of the campaign during a one-hour radio broadcast. There, Mr. Rustad was under attack over controversial comments that he and his party’s other candidates have made on issues such as vaccines and climate change.
Stewart Prest, a lecturer at the University of British Columbia’s political science department, said those tactics may not be having the effect that Mr. Eby had hoped for.
“This has been a very sticky campaign,” he said in an interview. “For the NDP, it hardly matters what they do. They have a certain amount of support, and it doesn’t look like their support is declining, but it doesn’t seem like they’ve had much success in causing voters to question where Mr. Rustad is coming from, as much as they tried to make that a focus.”
Dr. Prest said he’ll be watching for new tactics from Mr. Eby on Tuesday night: “This is going to be the last opportunity for any party to really shake things up.”
The Green Party’s campaign chair, Adam Olsen, said the debate is Ms. Furstenau’s prime opportunity to show voters that they have an alternative to the two main parties.
“She just needs to deliver the sharp critique of what they’re offering, and as well, the whole vision that she has for British Columbia,” he said.