https://vancouversun.com/news/politics/bc-election/b-c-election-premier-horgan-to-call-snap-election-today-voting-date-set-for-oct-24 TDC_ARTICLE_START VICTORIA — Premier John Horgan found his character under attack moments after calling a snap election Monday, with opponents and former allies questioning how voters can trust a leader who reneged on written agreement with the B.C. Greens to not call an early election. Horgan announced the election campaign in his suburban Langford riding, flanked by a backyard lacrosse net and a cul-de-sac of ordinary homes that he said represented voters who want to go to the polls early to secure him a four-year mandate. “I want to get the election behind us, not for myself but for the people of B.C. because they can’t afford to have partisan hectoring and uncertainty about whether bills will pass or not, which is what we’ve experienced over the past 3½ years,” said Horgan, who added that a proper economic recovery plan requires a new full term in office. “I believe stability will come by asking the people of British Columbia where they want to go and who they want to lead them.” British Columbians will vote Oct. 24, with advance voting starting Oct. 15, according to Elections B.C. The snap vote appears to be a gamble by Horgan that his public popularity will overcome any voter blowback caused by plunging the province into electoral uncertainty during record-high COVID-19 cases. B.C. recorded 366 new cases over the weekend. “I’ve struggled mightily with this decision and it did not come easily to me,” said Horgan. “This pandemic will be with us for a year or more and that’s why I believe we need to have an election now.” His decision violated the written power-sharing agreement he signed with the B.C. Greens in 2017, in which he promised to wait until the next scheduled election in Oct. 16, 2021. He also disregarded B.C.’s fixed election date law, though there is no penalty for doing so. “He has to recognize that he cannot lay blame for this election on anybody except for himself,” said B.C. Green leader Sonia Furstenau. “There’s no reason in any world to call an unnecessary election during a global pandemic. This is on John Horgan and on John Horgan alone.” New Democrats hope a snap vote will turn the party’s 41-seat minority government into a majority of at least 44 seats, shaking off the need for any further Green co-operation and, perhaps, eliminating their former allies entirely by targeting the three Vancouver Island seats last won by the Greens. TDC_ARTICLE_STOP I will never forgive John Horgan for making me agree with the Green Party Leaders. Basically, this snap election, in clear contradiction with BC election laws, as well as being asinine and annoying for us regular people, is being done in a cynical calculated move for the benefit of the NDP and John Horgan in particular. I’m also pissed because it really fucks us over, since there is now zero chance of us getting anything off the ground for this next election, which means we have to fall back on purely getting the message out, an overrated method of power, if ever there was one. TDC_ARTICLE_START The early campaign will clearly centre on the extent to which Horgan can advance the narrative that it is the public who will benefit from a snap election at the height of B.C.’s pandemic, when cases are at record-highs and exposure notifications are sounding in 18 public schools. TDC_ARTICLE_STOP It’s hilarious when I have to agree with enemy propagandists, if for different reasons. The idea that anyone in the general public could benefit from this election is so absurd as to border on satire. TDC_ARTICLE_START He missed the mark on Day 1, offering a confusing argument that British Columbians expect him to be focused on the pandemic 24/7, except, for some reason, for the next 35 days, said Hamish Telford, a political-science professor at the University of the Fraser Valley. The NDP has only one play left, to push through the initial wave of criticism and hope voters turn their mind to other issues later in the campaign, he said. “I think that they the risk that they run is that people just won’t engage beyond the hardcore partisans,” said Telford. “That’s a problem for the NDP because they won ridings last time that are not hard core NDP ridings and so if it’s just partisans, in some ridings the NDP won last time might come up short. “So I think it’s going to be difficult to engage people. People are rightly concerned about their health, their jobs, the economy and the safety of their kids in school. I don’t think they want to be thinking about this right now.” TDC_ARTICLE_STOP Yeah no shit. Obviously this is the worst possible time for an election, from the perspective of the people, because it’s nearly impossible to get the physical presence necessary to actually get a political campaign off the ground. Fuck Horgan. TDC_ARTICLE_START Horgan also pushed back at the contradiction between Henry encouraging people to “pull back” on social contacts at a time when he’s launching the largest public engagement process possible in an election. He said the biggest challenge is people disregarding health advice, not an election. TDC_ARTICLE_STOP That’s such an obvious non-sequitur it almost doesn’t need to be pointed out. People congregating in public, necessary for political campaigns, is currently illegal in BC, due to the “state of emergency,” that Horgan himself put us in. For the record, it doesn’t matter your opinion on CoronaChan. If you think this is the most serious pandemic in history, then there is less than zero excuse for an election right now. If you think this is completely overblown, then there is zero excuse for declaring a “state of emergency,” and banning public gatherings. Either way, this is an illegitimate election. TDC_ARTICLE_START All parties must now prepare to navigate an election campaign unlike any held previously in B.C. history. Parties will be forbidden from holding large rallies or gathering mass supporters, as crowds of more than 50 people are banned under public health orders. Election tours by party leaders, which normally criss-cross the province, have largely been scrapped. It’s unclear if candidates will even knock on doors, given public anxiety over social distancing. Instead, party war rooms are expected to blitz social media with advertising in an attempt to reach housebound voters. Phone banks and electronic outreach will prove crucial. Elections B.C., meanwhile, is also preparing for an unprecedented situation. It has extended advance voting dates, and is promising enhanced cleaning, crowd management and social distancing to ensure the health of voters. The election agency has encouraged anyone uncomfortable with voting in person to request a mail-in ballot instead, and is expecting as many as one-third of voters to go the mail-in route. TDC_ARTICLE_STOP Just in case anyone thought I was making the whole "it is illegal to congregate in public" thing, political parties are not allowed to campaign, except on heavily censored social media “platforms”. This is a straight up stolen election, done so that the party most in tune with Globo Homo can steal power from the people to an even larger extent than they currently do. We needed to get our own political party up and running months ago, but I thought I had literally an entire year longer. Regardless, every day counts now, and this is such a sham election, that it opens up quite a lot of opportunity for delegitimizing this system.