The Conservation Voters of B.C. are aggressively non-partisan and work hard to find candidates to endorse from across the political spectrum, but they won't be endorsing any Conservatives this election.

“The current government doesn't seem to be very strong on seeing these issues,” said Christianne Wilhelmson, the CVBC board's chair.

Stephen Harper's Conservative government has been weak on fighting climate change and has pushed development of Alberta's tar sands and is open to oil tanker traffic on B.C.'s coast, all of which are opposed by the CVBC.

“It is more difficult [to win an endorsement] when you have a party where the head doesn't have strong environmental leadership at all,” she said.

Within the next week, she said, the CVBC is expecting to endorse candidates in Saanich-Gulf Islands, Victoria and Vancouver Centre. “That's about all the capacity we have on the ground,” she said. “We just want to put our energies into areas where we can really make a difference.”

In the 2006 federal election the CVBC endorsed the NDP's Denise Savoie in Victoria. She is running again.

In the 2005 provincial election they endorsed the Green Party's Adriane Carr in her bid to become an MLA. Carr is running in Vancouver Centre.