Let the games begin! BC is now officially in election mode. UVic Political Scientist Michael Prince says to watch for the NDP to be more hard-hitting this time around, in contrast to last time when then-leader Adrian Dix tried to run a positive, issues-focused campaign, which his party lost -- despite leading in the polls. He says John Horgan will have taken a lesson from that and will be more assertive in holding the Liberals' feet to the fire.
Still, the Liberals did not do well on the island - winning just 2 of 11 seats. Prince says a new Vancouver Island-specific platform rolled out yesterday is designed to help turn things around for the party:
" It catches them some ink. It's going to help their candidates, I think, more than not having it you know when they do door-knocking to show that they're paying attention. It's maybe also an admission in a sense implicitly that they haven't paid attention as they could have, or might have over the last several years."
Prince says the Liberals are especially hopeful of winning seats in Courtney-Comox, Cowichan Valley, and in Saanich-North Islands where there was a close race last time.
But Prince says don't count the Greens out. He says they'll be pressing hard for a breakthrough in this election, possibly in Saanich-North Islands, and Esquimalt where the NDP incumbent is not running again.