The Conservation Voters of B.C. announced this morning they are endorsing Liberal Briony Penn in Saanich-Gulf Islands and the NDP's Denise Savoie in Victoria, but one opponent said the Penn endorsement will contribute to vote splitting, not stop it.

“They're both long-standing environmental champions with long track records of achievements in the environmental and community building areas,” said Naomi Devine, CVBC's regional co-ordinator. The organization chooses candidates based on their track records and how likely it is they'll be elected, she said.

In Saanich-Gulf Islands three green candidates are challenging Conservative natural resources minister Gary Lunn, who many environmentalists would like to see dumped from the government. The question for many voters is which candidate is best positioned to beat him.

“The idea is for us to do as much work to unsplit the progressive vote in these ridings as we can,” said Devine. “It's less of a factor in Denise's riding, but it's still a factor.”

But Penn's NDP opponent in Saanich-Gulf Islands said the CVBC may actually contribute to vote splitting. Most polls are showing the NDP running second in B.C. behind the Conservatives, said Julian West.

Endorsing Penn may give a boost to a candidate who would otherwise come in third, moving her into a tie with the NDP, West said. “That's exactly the wrong situation for strategic voters, because then they don't know what to do.”

Strategic voters don't want to know who the most environmental candidate is, he said, they want to know who has a chance to win. “If there wasn't this sort of intervention from outside the riding, I think we'd have a clear lead . . . However you cut it, the NDP's positioned to take seats away from Tories [in B.C.] and the Liberal party isn't.”

The CVBC could have put some money into taking a poll to see who was ahead, he said. “It would take some of the guess work out of it. Of course it's not about that. I think it's about a certain community taking care of their own.

“There was no selection process for these candidates,” said West. “You should talk to the other candidates in the field . . . There was no indication this sort of thing was going on. Just out of the blue, 'Hey, we like your opponent.'”

The CVBC is considering making more endorsements in other ridings.