B.C. Liberals could become B.C. United party in rebranding push
The name change is part of leader Kevin Falcon's quest to rebrand and revitalize the party.
Author of the article:Katie DeRosa
Publishing date:Sep 27, 2022 • 16 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
The B.C. United party is the name being floated by the B.C. Liberals as part of leader Kevin Falcon's quest to rebrand and revitalize the party.
The B.C. United party is the name being floated by the B.C. Liberals as part of leader Kevin Falcon's quest to rebrand and revitalize the party. PHOTO BY JEFF VINNICK /for PNG
B.C. United wants your vote. Never heard of them? You’re not alone.
That’s the name being floated by the B.C. Liberals as part of leader Kevin Falcon’s quest to rebrand and revitalize the party.
“B.C. United is a fresh alternative that expresses the party’s long-standing commitment to unity across a broad coalition of party members, as well as highlighting British Columbia front and centre in the name choice,” the party said in a press release Tuesday morning.
Falcon, a former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister elected party leader in February, wants to remove any perception of ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal Liberals and reflect the party’s status as a big-tent coalition of federal Liberals and Conservatives.
During the party’s convention in June, two-thirds of delegates endorsed the name change process.
The party said it considered more than 2,000 name suggestions made through an online portal, suggestion boxes, text messages and feedback during Falcon’s summer tour of the province.
All 45,000 party members will be asked by the end of the year to vote on whether to rebrand or stick with the status quo.
The B.C. Liberals have registered B.C. United with Elections B.C. as an alternate name.
Falcon said in a statement he’ll vote in favour of changing the party name and he hopes members will, too.
However some in the party are only willing to vote for a rebranding if it happens after the next general election — set for October 2024 but which could be called earlier by the B.C. NDP government — to avoid confusing the electorate.
B.C. Liberal vice-president Caroline Elliott said the party will be strategic about the timing of a name change.
“We’re going to be smart about it,” she told Postmedia. “We’re not the governing party, we don’t control the election timing. We know the NDP have broken the fixed election date law before. And if they see an opportunity to advance their political interests — let’s say we were vulnerable going down the road of a new name — I have no doubt that they could call a snap election again.”
Brand confusion could help the B.C. Conservatives, which in the Surrey South byelection earlier this month secured 12 per cent of the vote.
Falcon told Postmedia in June he has no plans to court the B.C. Conservatives to form a coalition like Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party, which merged Alberta’s Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties.
Stewart Prest, a political scientist at Quest University Canada, said the name change is one part of a larger renewal process for the B.C. Liberals as they work to recapture the votes lost in the 2020 election, which resulted in their lowest seat count in three decades.
The fact that the new name doesn’t include Liberal or Conservative is a “clear attempt to signal they’re trying to bridge the divide between those two, sometimes very different, political camps,” Prest said.
On social media, the new name sparked jokes about B.C.’s newest soccer team since “united” is a common moniker used by some Premier League teams.
“I assume (the B.C. Liberals) saw that coming and perhaps they thought politics is very much like a team sport anyway, so they’d be able to lean into the metaphor a little bit,” Prest said.
Ravi Kahlon, minister of jobs and NDP MLA for Delta North, said the name announcement “was a bit of an own goal” for the B.C. Liberals.
“They can change their name all they want, but they can’t change Kevin Falcon’s record” in former premier Christy Clark’s B.C. Liberal government, Kahlon said. “They have a record of raising MSP rates, they raised bridge tolls, hydro rates, raided ICBC and all while cutting services to British Columbians.”
The B.C. Liberals have flirted with changing their name several times before, including in 1996 and 2013, but the idea didn’t get enough support from party faithful who worried about diluting the brand.
kderosa@postmedia.com
torontosun.com
The name change is part of leader Kevin Falcon's quest to rebrand and revitalize the party.
Author of the article:Katie DeRosa
Publishing date:Sep 27, 2022 • 16 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
The B.C. United party is the name being floated by the B.C. Liberals as part of leader Kevin Falcon's quest to rebrand and revitalize the party.
The B.C. United party is the name being floated by the B.C. Liberals as part of leader Kevin Falcon's quest to rebrand and revitalize the party. PHOTO BY JEFF VINNICK /for PNG
B.C. United wants your vote. Never heard of them? You’re not alone.
That’s the name being floated by the B.C. Liberals as part of leader Kevin Falcon’s quest to rebrand and revitalize the party.
“B.C. United is a fresh alternative that expresses the party’s long-standing commitment to unity across a broad coalition of party members, as well as highlighting British Columbia front and centre in the name choice,” the party said in a press release Tuesday morning.
Falcon, a former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister elected party leader in February, wants to remove any perception of ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal Liberals and reflect the party’s status as a big-tent coalition of federal Liberals and Conservatives.
During the party’s convention in June, two-thirds of delegates endorsed the name change process.
The party said it considered more than 2,000 name suggestions made through an online portal, suggestion boxes, text messages and feedback during Falcon’s summer tour of the province.
All 45,000 party members will be asked by the end of the year to vote on whether to rebrand or stick with the status quo.
The B.C. Liberals have registered B.C. United with Elections B.C. as an alternate name.
Falcon said in a statement he’ll vote in favour of changing the party name and he hopes members will, too.
However some in the party are only willing to vote for a rebranding if it happens after the next general election — set for October 2024 but which could be called earlier by the B.C. NDP government — to avoid confusing the electorate.
B.C. Liberal vice-president Caroline Elliott said the party will be strategic about the timing of a name change.
“We’re going to be smart about it,” she told Postmedia. “We’re not the governing party, we don’t control the election timing. We know the NDP have broken the fixed election date law before. And if they see an opportunity to advance their political interests — let’s say we were vulnerable going down the road of a new name — I have no doubt that they could call a snap election again.”
Brand confusion could help the B.C. Conservatives, which in the Surrey South byelection earlier this month secured 12 per cent of the vote.
Falcon told Postmedia in June he has no plans to court the B.C. Conservatives to form a coalition like Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party, which merged Alberta’s Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties.
Stewart Prest, a political scientist at Quest University Canada, said the name change is one part of a larger renewal process for the B.C. Liberals as they work to recapture the votes lost in the 2020 election, which resulted in their lowest seat count in three decades.
The fact that the new name doesn’t include Liberal or Conservative is a “clear attempt to signal they’re trying to bridge the divide between those two, sometimes very different, political camps,” Prest said.
On social media, the new name sparked jokes about B.C.’s newest soccer team since “united” is a common moniker used by some Premier League teams.
“I assume (the B.C. Liberals) saw that coming and perhaps they thought politics is very much like a team sport anyway, so they’d be able to lean into the metaphor a little bit,” Prest said.
Ravi Kahlon, minister of jobs and NDP MLA for Delta North, said the name announcement “was a bit of an own goal” for the B.C. Liberals.
“They can change their name all they want, but they can’t change Kevin Falcon’s record” in former premier Christy Clark’s B.C. Liberal government, Kahlon said. “They have a record of raising MSP rates, they raised bridge tolls, hydro rates, raided ICBC and all while cutting services to British Columbians.”
The B.C. Liberals have flirted with changing their name several times before, including in 1996 and 2013, but the idea didn’t get enough support from party faithful who worried about diluting the brand.
kderosa@postmedia.com
B.C. Liberals could become B.C. United party in rebranding push
The party's name change is part of leader Kevin Falcon's quest to rebrand and revitalize the party.
