New Democrats lead in polls before May 14 British Columbia election

he British Columbia election campaign doesn't begin officially until April 16 but parties are already gearing up for the race. The opposition New Democratic Party finished selecting candidates in all 85 ridings.

NDP opposition leader, Adrian Dix, said that his election team senses enthusiasm for change throughout the province. The NDP will launch a series of TV ads on Monday. The official campaign period of 28 days starts on Tuesday. At dissolution the Liberals held 45 seats, the NDP 36 and Independent 2 and 2 vacant.

Although somewhat out of date, projections based on a number of polls up to March 19 give the following vote percentages: NDP 49.9%, Liberals 30.4%, Conservatives 10.4% and Greens 7.5%, Others have 1.8%. The seat projections are 64 for the NDP and 20 for the Liberals and 1 Independent.( NOTE: The polls listed atthis other site, do not seem consistent with other polls I checked. They give the Conservatives far too high a percentage.) The site referenced lists several different polls which were averaged and names the sources and dates. There are other polls referenced at this site. A detailed discussion of some polls is also found in this article. All polls show the NDP considerably ahead of the Liberals led by Christy Clark.

Last year, the BC Liberal party managed to raise $10 million. Half of the amount came from corporations and $3.8 million from individuals with the remainder coming from smaller sources. The NDP raised only $6.9 million with $1.6 million coming from unions, $4 million from individuals, and a final million from corporations. The Conservatives were able only to raise $356,322 with 20 per cent corporate donations and the rest from individuals.

The NDP is already claiming that the ruling Liberals are hiding a deficit. Finance Minister of the Liberal government Mike de Jong said the NDP claim was "political propaganda". He said the NDP would spend more, leading to higher taxes, worsening credit and higher borrowing costs for the province. The NDP has said that it would increase taxes for those earning more than $150,000 a year and boost the corporate tax from 11 to 12 per cent.