For the first time in a long time, the governing party will represent British Columbians across the entire province.
From urban cores to inner suburbs to rural regions, BC Conservative MLAs will represent residents from the heart of downtown Vancouver to the farthest northern reaches of the province. Mail-in ballot counts and recounts are underway, but Premier-Designate Lorne Doerkson’s BC Conservatives have a huge majority.
Conservative Party legislators will be able to credibly speak for every corner of the province. This is both a tremendous challenge and a historic advantage. Doerkson has already signalled his intention to use that authority to help reunite the province.
Since Expo 86, Vancouver’s explosive growth into a globally integrated service-sector economy has, in many ways, alienated the city from the rest of BC. An ethos of productivity, public order and the common good can make B.C. truly whole again.
Vancouver is a global city and its people have no desire to withdraw from that status. It has access to international capital and lucrative markets in its own right, which is a huge advantage. Connecting the rest of B.C. to those opportunities will be key to the province’s success.
Every world-class economy needs a sophisticated commercial centre like Vancouver, where infrastructure and other development can be financed, so the raw materials and manufactured products from rural areas can be shipped to world markets. Indeed, this is a far more useful form of business than Metro Vancouver’s tendency to inflate its GDP through high real estate prices. Other secondary contributors to the economy will not, even combined, take the city or the province to the next level.
“You can’t build a provincial economy on whale watching and coffee shops,” said Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West on election night, and he was right.
West’s words drew both praise and criticism. He soon elaborated:
“We need to be a province that builds, makes and creates. We need a provincial industrial strategy and we need to get serious about the loss of industrial land to real estate speculation,” wrote West on social media.
“Once industrial land is converted to other uses, it is extraordinarily difficult…without that land, where exactly do we expect the next generation of manufacturers, skilled tradespeople and industrial employers to go?”
Urban and rural prosperity is inter-connected
West is joined, at least in spirit, by the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. After the provincial election, the GVBOT called for more natural resource development and major investments in technology and economic infrastructure.
There is still a place for sawmills in this province, and it does not involve converting them into condos. Here again, Doerkson has indicated his intention to re-energize the forestry sector by increasing access wood, and resources for forest protection against wildfire losses, which he views as related.
The Conservative election platform commits to speeding approvals for major projects over $250 million and easing regulations to facilitate more mineral exploration. The rewards of resource development anywhere in the province will be felt in the Lower Mainland. A new mine in the North will need offices in Vancouver, as will any new LNG project.
Disdain for the resource industry, however fashionable, does B.C. no favours. The idea that the resource economy exists separately from the city is laughable at best.
One of the biggest ironies of the “green’ politics” that often prevail in Vancouver, is that the city could not exist as it does without energy from the province’s vast hinterland. BC Hydro is not a product of Metro Vancouver. The region runs on energy produced hundreds of kilometres away from the Bentall Centre in the Peace River region.
The city and the rest of the province have a symbiotic relationship, and neither can grow to its full potential in isolation of the other. The Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) has its head office on Vancouver’s West Pender Street, while advocating for an industry that breaks rocks far away. The supposed gulf between the city and the rest of B.C. is far smaller—if it exists at all—than many realize.
A strong economy will hold the coalition together
Reintegrating the province both economically and in the public imagination would greatly improve the lives of British Columbians. It is easy to think of Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria as the province’s dominant regions, even though they are geographically dwarfed by the vast province beyond their municipal borders.
Skilled jobs and high wages can be found throughout the province, and many people who leave Vancouver for smaller towns end up staying there. The province can facilitate this migration by aggressively developing new roads, expanding services and improving electricity transmission. For a Conservative government, there is no contradiction between doing so and keeping its hands off private industry. Building the infrastructure that enables the private sector to thrive is a B.C. tradition dating back to at least W.A.C. Bennett.
Lorne Doerkson pledged in his victory speech to revitalize port and rail infrastructure across B.C. and transportation in the Lower Mainland. Given his background in the Cariboo and his status as one of only two premier-elects in 40 years to represent a riding outside the Metro Vancouver (the other being John Horgan), it seems likely he will bring a more province-wide approach to governance.
People are more loyal to prosperity than to ideology. Nothing will hold a coalition spanning rural areas, suburbs and cities together like a strong and productive economy.
Whatever gains are made must reach ordinary households.
An LNG job in Kitimat offers little for a young person in Vancouver’s West End unless they can get the training to qualify. On the other hand, a tech boom in Burnaby is unlikely to be felt in the Peace unless, of course, the B.C. government pushes for AI data centres to be built there, taking advantage of the region’s vast water supplies.
Conservatives must unite over mutual goals
Another improvement that would benefit cities and towns alike is the restoration of public order.
Kelowna, Victoria, Terrace, New Westminster, Prince George and Vancouver have felt the effects of addiction and petty crime. People will go about their daily lives with greater confidence if their surroundings are healthier and safer. This is another area the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade addressed, calling for safer downtowns and action on repeat offenders—a bold move for a business association that often shies away from controversial societal topics.
These are areas of agreement that can unify a large and regionally diverse caucus. No regional wing of the party can define B.C., so neither should it be allowed to monopolize government’s agenda. Canadian politics too often treats population density as destiny and fixates on the rural-urban divide. The Conservatives have an opportunity to break that habit by making regional cooperation and an all-of-BC approach the norm.
The New Democrats learnt this the hard way, at least electorally. By largely turning themselves into a party for the Lower Mainland and southern Vancouver Island, the NDP paid the price in the provincial election. Concerns over public safety, the forestry economy and being left behind have alienated once-reliable NDP voters outside Greater Vancouver.
By defeating an unpopular NDP government, the BC Conservatives brought strangers together for an evening of celebration on election night. Those voters could become a powerful governing coalition if the party keeps them united. Giving them a material stake in a shared future could sustain that alliance for years.
Under Doeskson’s leadership, the Conservatives won the opportunity to make Vancouver’s ambitions and the livelihoods of British Columbians elsewhere mutually reinforcing. Let’s hope they seize it.