Why Kevin Falcon’s Defection Is a Threat to Democracy

Kevin Falcon deserves credit for at least one thing — showing how deeply undemocratic our system is.

Wait, two things.

Falcon also showed how the lack of democracy can let special interests try to rig elections.

Falcon shut down the BC United campaign unilaterally, without warning and just seven weeks before an election.

The elimination of a centre-right option, forcing a polarizing choice between the BC Conservatives and NDP, was done in a late-night backroom deal between a handful of insiders.

Party members — 44,000 in 2022 when Falcon won the leadership in a scandal-plagued race — had no say.

Twenty-three BC United MLAs and candidates fighting to be elected weren’t consulted.

The party board of directors had no real role. “The board endorsed the decision I made,” Falcon told the Victoria Times Colonist.

The process stinks. Rob Shaw offers a great account in Business in Vancouver.

To summarize, on Sunday, Aug. 25, Falcon asked his sister-in-law Caroline Elliott, BC United candidate in West Vancouver-Capilano, to reach out to Angelo Isidorou, the Conservative Party of BC’s executive director, to ask for a meeting. Elliott and Isidorou met for a beer.

Two days later, Elliott and BC United executive director Lindsay Coté gathered for an afternoon meeting in a Vancouver boardroom with Isidorou and Conservative Party of BC president Aisha Estey. (That was last Tuesday, when Falcon was meeting one on one with reporters in Victoria and denouncing the Conservatives as dangerous and unfit to govern.)

By midnight, Falcon had joined them and agreed to shut down United’s campaign and fire all the nominated candidates. He got nothing in return beyond Conservative Leader John Rustad’s agreement to consider allowing some United candidates and MLAs to run under the Conservative banner.

There is something broken with a system that allows one person to shut down a party and remove a key option for voters seven weeks before an election.

And a system that gives entitled special interests the power to control the democratic process.

Falcon acknowledged the business community pushed him to drop out.

Justine Hunter and Mike Hager reported on the business role in killing the United campaign in the Globe and Mail.

Chris Gardner, head of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, which has fought against the NDP for decades, told the Globe members were alarmed that United, while sinking in the polls, would still split the non-NDP vote. The ICBA was prepared to endorse the Conservatives.

And Norman Stowe, head of Pace Group Communications and a longtime political insider — with the BC Liberals, United and now the BC Conservatives — said business leaders pressed Falcon to clear the way for the Conservatives.

“The business community made it very clear: We’re going to be going with the Conservatives,” Stowe told the Globe. “And we’d rather not split the vote.”

Falcon listened to them. Not to MLAs or party members.

Certainly not to his principles.

Two weeks ago, he said it was “not possible” for him to back the BC Conservatives.

“I’m a very principled leader and I believe that you need to guide yourself as a party by principles too. And to throw those out the window — you know, I’ve had colleagues that have gone to join the BC Conservatives that have told me things about that party, how much they despise the leader and their candidates and they’re wingnuts and all this stuff. And next thing you know, they find themselves over there. I don’t know how they do that. I personally couldn’t.... I think a lot of it is driven by their concern about their own situation.”

Politicians have every right to change policies. But principles, values and honesty are not to be shed like last season’s fashion.

And while Falcon was listening to the corporate interests, he was ignoring his MLAs.

Karin Kirkpatrick, West Vancouver-Capilano MLA, was blunt and accurate on X. “You have left all of us middle-of-the-road centrist voters with no political home here in B.C. Thanks a lot.”

It’s unclear how this will play out in the Oct. 19 election. Longtime Liberal-United supporters like Mark Marissen and former cabinet minister Terry Lake are committed to or considering voting NDP. BC United MLA Mike Bernier currently plans to run as an Independent. The centre-right backlash against Falcon’s betrayal will be strong.

As will the focus on the Conservatives’ often problematic candidates and policies. (The party’s Jordan Peterson wannabe candidate in Vancouver-Langara has decreed women have an obligation to “act like a fucking mother” and breastfeed their children.)

But we do know that Falcon has shown how easily democracy can be subverted in the boardrooms and backrooms, and how powerful interests can shape election choices.

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