B.C. Provincial Election (By: Greg webster)
On May 14th, 2013, the citizens of our province will vote to elect members of the Legislative Assembly, including the Premier of British Columbia. This date was formally chosen for the elections as they have always been held on the second Tuesday in May according to B.C.’s Constitution Act.
Since February 26, 2011, Christy Clark has been the Premier of B.C., as she is the current leader of the B.C. Liberals. Gordon Campbell resigned from his position of leader of the B.C. Liberals which he held for 17 years, primarily due to the opposition to his implemented Harmonised Sales Tax which was not popular at all with citizens.
The official opposition party has been the NDP since the last election, under current leader Adrian Dix. The Liberals and NDP are the only two parties that hold any seats in the Legislative Assembly; however, the Green Party under leader Jane Sterk held 8.21 percent of the popular vote last election, and the Conservatives under leader John Cummins had 2.1 percent. Other registered parties include the B.C. Marijuana Party, the B.C. First Party, and B.C. Vision. In total, there are 26 registered political parties which citizens can vote for.
In opinion polls, the NDP has had by far the highest amount of projected seats in the Legislative Assembly, indicating that they will most likely win next month’s election. To form a majority, the winning party must have at least 43 seats; and in popular opinion polls the NDP has been very close to this number. If the winning party has the highest amount of seats but not more than 43 seats, it will then form a minority government.
Last election, the voter turn-out was disappointing in that just 50.99 percent of eligible voters actually voted. This was down by over 7 percent from the election before, in 2005, where 58.2 percent of eligible voters casted a vote.