Candidates in Metro Vancouver on day 2 of BC election campaign

Leaders of British Columbia’s two main political parties are focusing on the challenges facing Metro Vancouver communities as the provincial election campaign enters its second day.

John Rustad’s BC Conservatives will be in Surrey, while David Eby and his New Democrats will focus on housing in Metro Vancouver.

Surrey has been ignored by the NDP government and “treated like a second-class city,” Rustad said in an interview.

He says the community’s campaign kickoff event will focus on the city’s specific needs, including the lack of hospital and public transportation services, affordability, crime and the education system.

Eby, meanwhile, is focusing his campaign on affordable housing and is targeting North Vancouver, Port Moody and Langley.

The campaign officially kicked off on Saturday ahead of the October 19 election.

Eby walked along the Lonsdale Wharf and Shipyards District on North Vancouver’s waterfront, examining the locations of proposed affordable housing projects.

One of those sites is the recently purchased 300,000-square-foot building of BC Insurance Corp., where hundreds of affordable housing units are planned, Eby said.

“North Vancouver has been a great partner for this,” Eby said. “They identified three BC Builds sites right from the start. They expedited permitting for those sites where rental housing is particularly affordable. There are many cities like this in the province that we’ve been working closely with and visited today.”

Rustad said he plans to return to Surrey, where he said momentum has been building over the course of the campaign, “many times.”

Trump, who said he would “continue to highlight the failures” of the NDP, said he would also announce his party’s proposals in the coming days, with a statement on affordability to begin on Monday.

Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau was scheduled to campaign in regional Victoria on Sunday and kicked off her campaign on Saturday.

Eby spent the first day of the campaign crisscrossing the Lower Mainland, stopping in Richmond, North Vancouver, Langley and Burnaby.

Rustad was on Vancouver Island on Saturday night after kicking off his campaign in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood in the morning.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2024.