Other parties need to organize if they want to change Conservative dominance in B.C. Interior: poli sci prof

Though they didn't manage to form government, the Conservative Party of Canada is celebrating a near-complete sweep of British Columbia's resource-rich Interior and north following Monday's election, growing on decades of centre-right dominance in the area.

And a political science prof in the region says other parties need to start organizing now if they want to have any chance of stopping what he describes as largely a "one-party race" in the province outside of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.

The Conservatives wrestled away two key NDP-held ridings, flipping both Skeena-Bulkley Valley and Similkameen-South Okanagan-West Kootenay. The party had long hoped to take the seats, and Leader Pierre Poilievre touched down in both locations to meet with voters during the campaign.

It marks the first time the NDP hasn't had a presence in the province's Interior since 2000, and continues the near shutout of the Liberals from the region dating back to the 1970s.

Jason Morris, a professor of political science at the University of Northern B.C., says supporters of other parties need to be "busier than beavers" organizing themselves if they hope to see someone other than a Conservative elected to represent the region next time around, pointing out that party has a strong presence in the area even in non-election years.

In contrast, he observed that the Liberal Party often doesn't even announce candidates for some ridings in the area until midway through election campaigns and has at times put forward the names of people with no history in the region.

"It's just a terrible way to try to build for the future," he said in an interview that was completed prior to the election results. "Political parties ... aren't just supposed to be functioning when the writ is dropped. They're supposed to be doing their best in the communities they wish to represent."

NDP 'squeezed out': former MLA

Former NDP MP Nathan Cullen says he believes the party he used to represent had a strong ground game with local volunteers and incumbents, but ultimately met with circumstances it couldn't control.

"The NDP got squeezed," he said in an interview with CBC Daybreak North host Carolina de Ryk.

Cullen said he heard from former colleagues that many NDP supporters felt they had to cast their vote for either the Liberals or the Conservatives in order to make their voices heard, creating an uphill battle for the party.

Among those to lose their seats was Taylor Bachrach, Cullen's would-be successor as NDP MP for the Skeena-Bulkley Valley riding, defeated by the Conservatives' hand-picked candidate Ellis Ross. 

Ross, a former chief councillor of the Haisla Nation, had managed to flip the North Coast once before, when he defeated the NDP incumbent in the provincial race for the Skeena riding in 2017. 

In the federal election, he campaigned under a promise to bring more major industrial projects that would benefit area First Nations, pointing to the success of the LNG Canada project, which is set to come online later this year.

"There was a lot of energy on the Conservative front," Cullen said, while praising Bachrach for a strong second-place finish.

The NDP also lost the riding of Similkameen-South Okanagan-West Kootenay, coming in third behind the Conservative winner.

Conservatives set to work across party lines

Elsewhere, Conservative incumbents saw their vote share increase over previous years, signalling strong support for the party in ridings it already held.

Among them was Dan Albas, winning his fifth consecutive term in the newly formed riding of Okanagan Lake West-South Kelowna and cracking the 50 per cent mark for overall votes for the first time since 2011.

He said while he appreciates the mandate, he recognizes his party will have to find common ground with others in a parliament that seems poised to return a minority government.

"We are going to have to really work together to try and figure out where we can find areas that we can agree on," he said.

That was echoed by Cariboo-Prince George victor Todd Doherty, who pointed to his work advocating for mental health supports under a Liberal government as the type of work he wants to continue.

Liberal gains 

But despite Conservative dominance, the Liberals also saw gains in their overall vote share in the Interior, finishing second in the majority of races in a region in which the party is often an afterthought.

And the party has gained a seat in Kelowna, where Stephen Fuhr led Conservative incumbent Tracy Gray by just 235 votes.

Fuhr was first elected in 2015, becoming the first victorious Liberal candidate in the Interior since 1974. However, he lost to Gray in 2019 and chose not to run again in 2021.

But he says the momentum of Mark Carney and his desire to fight against Donald Trump brought him back into the race this year, and he credits both of those factors for his potential victory, as well as the shifting demographics of Kelowna to being younger and more urban.

"Progressive parties can win in Kelowna," he said.