Andrew Weaver Is Back as a CentreBC Candidate

Andrew Weaver’s campaign has no manager, financial agent, lawn signs or money, but he is jumping into the British Columbia election as CentreBC’s candidate in the Vancouver Island riding of Oak Bay-Gordon Head.

“I made the decision yesterday,” Weaver said Wednesday at a park in the constituency he represented for two terms as a BC Green MLA. “I made the decision after I found out the people who came from the B.C. Conservatives to CentreBC went back.”

The chain of events began when Premier David Eby announced the snap Oct. 24 election, saying his NDP government needs a stronger mandate to protect the province against tariffs and threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Seven MLAs who a few days earlier had joined CentreBC, a party formed by disgruntled BC United members after the 2024 election, responded to the election call by returning to the Conservatives. They included Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar, who briefly led CentreBC, and others willing to work with Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson, who took over as interim leader after Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s resignation Sunday.

That left Elenore Sturko, the MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale, as the lone incumbent running with CentreBC. She replaced Milobar as leader and the party pledged it will run as many candidates as it can.

Weaver, who joined CentreBC last December, said he has been on the sidelines of B.C. politics for six years and has been busy working on his wife Jordan Weaver’s campaign for a seat on Saanich council. He hadn’t planned to seek election himself.

“I couldn’t stand by anymore,” he said. “The ingrained cynicism of Mr. Eby’s call for an election prompted me to say, you know what, I’ll step up and put my support behind Elenore Sturko, who has shown enormous integrity, profound courage, and is exactly the type of person we need leading a party in these difficult times.”

He’d watched the Conservative Party of BC go from nothing to nearly forming government after the last election, then imploding and again rebuilding, Weaver said. “It’s chaos.”

To see a group of MLAs return to the Conservatives just days after joining CentreBC was too much, said Weaver. “It left a taste that once again we’re seeing politicians put their interests, their desire for power and election ahead of their principles and integrity and ethical values.”

In 2013 Weaver was the first BC Green MLA elected to the legislature. He led the party into the 2017 election where it won three seats and held the balance of power. An agreement with the NDP led to John Horgan becoming premier.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with John Horgan,” said Weaver, who after his time in office returned to teaching climate science at the University of Victoria. “I thought he was one of British Columbia’s most effective premiers, certainly in my lifetime. I’ve watched the trust that was built from that time begin to unravel.”

Eby’s rationale for the current election is an indication of just how different the NDP is under his leadership, Weaver said.

“I don’t think there’s a single person in the province of British Columbia who believes [the election] is about Donald Trump,” he said. “It’s not about Trump that I’m standing here. It’s about cynicism in politics. That has to be called out, and I hope the people of British Columbia vote for candidates who actually show integrity and are honest and transparent as to why they’re entering the race.”

In the past Weaver, who described himself as a centrist, has supported candidates across the political spectrum whom he likes or has a personal connection with.

On Wednesday the BC Green Party announced that leader Emily Lowan will run in Saanich North and the Islands, where MLA Rob Botterell has decided not to run again. The party’s other incumbent, Jeremy Valeriote, will run in the West Vancouver-Sea to Sky constituency he’s represented since 2024.

Weaver said he knows Lowan from her time at UVic and that she is “quite brilliant” and he strongly supported her application for a Rhodes Scholarship.

“I hope Emily and the Greens do well,” he said. “I think that maybe some of the rhetoric needs to change, and I would just say that comes from inexperience in the political discourse and I think that she’s a fast learner and look out for her down the road.”

The legislature needs Lowan’s voice, he added. “Emily is super credible. She’s going to bring a vibrancy to the legislature, an energy that will be fantastic.”

The incumbent in Oak Bay-Gordon Head is NDP MLA Diana Gibson, the minister of citizens’ services. The Conservatives and Greens have yet to name their candidates.

Weaver said he will criticize opponents on their records but avoid personal attacks. “I’m sick and tired of people throwing grenades at each other. Let’s just move together and actually give the voters something to vote for instead of trying to fear everybody about a vote for them is a vote for this. Tell people what you stand for.”

Asked about potential vote splitting, he said he still feels the same way about it as he did when he won in 2013. “We didn’t split the vote, we were the vote in Oak Bay-Gordon Head, and that’s exactly the message I’m going to take forward.”

To people in small parties throughout the province, he added, “Do not let people tell you that you are splitting the vote, because the hubris of those who will say it is disrespectful to the average voter.”

If the mainstream parties want your vote, it’s their responsibility to inspire you to vote for them, said Weaver. “Frankly a vote for either the NDP or the Conservatives is a vote for more of the same. You get what you vote for. You want change, vote for change. You want more of the same, that’s your choice.”