BC Liberals set to choose new leader ... if membership challenges exhausted and courts willing

Just close to one year on the campaign trail, the BC Liberals will
announce the next party leader sometime Saturday evening

What has already been a far too long BC Liberal leadership contest, may yet deliver some additional and  unwanted drama for the party, that as the membership (both official and suspicious) head to their computers, phones or tablets to make their choice.

The starting gun for the Leadership race was fired on February 26th one year ago, when the party charted the course to February 5th, 2022 for those with an interest in taking on the reins of the party and look towards a rebuild that will, as the Liberals may hope, return them to the Government side of the House.

While many British Columbians may have tuned out the lengthy race well before last Thanksgiving, the seven candidates continued on with their pursuit of the Leadership.

Those chasing the prize include Gavin Dew, Kevin Falcon, Michael Lee, Val Litwin, Renee Merifield, Ells Ross and Stan Sipos.

The seven travelling the province, taking part in leadership debates and collecting memberships ... lots of memberships and in the eyes of a few critics, maybe too many memberships that aren't quite on the up and up.

One Liberal, Vikram Bajwa, was concerned enough about the process that he petitioned the B.C. Supreme Court to delay the scheduled release of the leadership results, that in order to have the party provide details of its audit of new memberships signed up during the campaign. 

So far there has been no word on how that legal quest has turned out.

Some background on that controversy can be reviewed below:

Voting underway in BC Liberal leadership contest as party faces court challenge
BC Liberals seek renewal but face divisions on the road to choosing a new leader
BC Liberal audit of new members was extensive, lawyer tells court
Court asked to delay BC Liberal leadership result over membership concerns
More infighting bedevils BC Liberal leadership race

As for the Voting, the online process was opened up Thursday and will come to an end at 5PM tomorrow.

As the BC Liberal rules for the leadership campaign outline the following:

Voting will be conducted using a one member, one vote preferential ballot system. Each of the province’s electoral districts will be given equal weight in balloting, specifically each electoral district will be assigned 100 points. The first candidate to achieve more than 50% of available points will be declared the winner. 

Of note for BC Liberals in the Northwest and North Coast, earlier today Skeena's Ellis Ross  provided an update on the voting as of Thursday evening, expressing some optimism as to where his campaign is as the final hours for his quest for the leadership count down.

While the seven candidates try to put their best look on the end of the campaign, all of the recent news related to the membership challenges is putting a few clouds over what was supposed to be a sunshine kind of weekend. 

An event where the next leader will be announced, pull the party close and show some unity ....

Well, maybe the Liberals will get one out of three when the time comes tomorrow evening, the other two elements something that may be a tad harder to attain or take a bit longer to bring forward.

One thing is certain, whomever is announced as the leader, the first order of business should be pay tribute to the work of Interim Leader Shirley Bond, who since November of 2020,  has been steadfast in doing her best to ensure that there is some form of opposition presence in place to speak to the NDP government's work of the last few months.

Such has been her work on the file, that some in the Liberal Party must be wondering if maybe they shouldn't have scuttled the year long marathon and just asked Ms. Bond to take the task on full time.

As for the future, once the votes come in the real work gets underway. 

First on tap, a need to pull what is a bit of a fractured party coming out of the Leadership chase and then to refocus on the more important work, that of making for a competent Opposition to keep the NDP on its toes and give them pause for second thought  at times when it comes to their Legislation.

Something that British Columbians will want to see and deserve to have, in order for the democratic process to really perform as it should.

However, should the bickering continue along into the virtual voting booth and beyond, the big winner from the weekend could end up being the Party that currently holds power.

To keep up with the latest news from the BC Liberal leadership campaign organizers and the announcement of the new leader follow their Social Media Stream.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review