Longtime Lumby mayor Kevin Acton has taken the opportunity to go it alone.
Acton was the B.C. United (formerly B.C. Liberal) candidate for the new Vernon-Lumby riding up until Wednesday, Aug. 28, when United leader Kevin Falcon announced the party would suspend its campaign, encouraging supporters to instead back John Rustad's BC Conservative Party in a move that has drastically changed the political landscape in the province less than two months before the election.
Following the news, Acton said he was willing to run as a BC Conservative candidate in the upcoming provincial election if the opportunity was presented to him.
But now Elections BC has confirmed that all previously endorsed BC United candidates will be granted status as registered independent candidates on the Oct. 19 ballot unless those candidates choose to withdraw.
Acton has confirmed that it is his full intention to remain on the ballot in recognition of his responsibility to numerous voters and supporters in the riding.
“While the party model of government has certain benefits, it also has a number of obvious flaws - including the ability of a party leader to remove previously vetted and duly elected candidates from participation as that party’s candidate, without the benefit of consultation or agreement from local constituents or the declared candidate," Acton said.
Acton said he heard about the suspension of B.C. United's campaign Wednesday "the same way everybody did, through the news." He added he didn't have an issue with finding out this way, saying he understands some business has to be done "behind closed doors."
He also doesn't have an issue with Falcon's decision to fold the United party.
"If I'm being truthful with myself and everybody else, I felt in my gut that something was going to have to give before the election in order for British Columbia to have a chance at a right-wing-based government."
Asked what he thinks went wrong with the United campaign, Acton was somewhat at a loss to provide an answer, but described a pendulum swing among centre-right voters towards the Conservatives, who he acknowledged are to the right of United on the political spectrum.
"I honestly don't think that anything went wrong (with the campaign)," he said. "I think British Columbians are very, very frustrated with left-wing politics and the mother-knows-best policies, and as human beings, we always tend to swing hard the other way when we're frustrated with something. So I'm not sure B.C. United could have done anything different than they had."
Acton had initially reached out to the Conservatives to express his willingness to run under their banner.
Since United dropped out, he's spoken to his former running-mates in the Okanagan, and without naming names, said some of them told him they would be willing to put their names forward for Conservative candidacy as well.
B.C. United's withdrawal from the election was an effort to prevent vote-splitting between the two right-of-centre parties, as Falcon and Rustad expressed in a joint news conference Wednesday. Acton said the biggest concern he heard when he was door-knocking was that vote-splitting would pave the way for an NDP re-election.
For Acton — who said he was concerned about a potential split vote prior to United's campaign suspension — this was a sign that there is enough overlap between the Conservative and United platforms for him to find a home in the Conservative Party.
"It's very obvious that if vote splitting was such an issue, then obviously our values were quite aligned in most areas, so I'm happy to work with any party that's conservative in nature," said Acton, who described himself as a fiscal conservative who has been a federal Conservative "for a long time."
Acton said since Wednesday's announcement, he's received goodwill from a lot of people who were on the fence when it came to supporting his United campaign.
