Five takeaways from B.C.’s only televised election debate

VANCOUVER — The leaders of British Columbia’s three main parties took part in the election’s only televised debate on Wednesday night, trading barbs, criticizing their opponents’ policies and pitching for votes. Here are five takeaways from the debate between interim B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson, NDP Leader David Eby and Green Party Leader Emily Lowan.

Eby said Conservatives had tried to bring down his government 13 times. He acknowledged that neither he nor his party had been perfect in government, but defended calling a snap election, saying he needed a stronger mandate to respond to U.S. tariff threats. “This was not a government that was able to deliver the big swings that you and your family need government to be taking for you,” he said.

Doerkson said his plan would benefit British Columbians with the lowest incomes. He said he would pay down the province’s forecast $13.8-billion deficit by supercharging the economy, without introducing new taxes or raising existing ones. He also defended a planned tax cut for British Columbians, which he said would inject $2 billion into the provincial economy. “When we give a break to business in British Columbia, they spend,” he said. “They create an economy.”

Lowan said advocating for a better electoral system was her top priority. If her party held the balance of power in a minority government, she said, it would push to change the election process. She argued for proportional representation, describing a system in which voters would not be caught between “lesser evils” or forced to choose between broken promises and service cuts.

Doerkson and Lowan said Eby had left a trail of broken promises. Doerkson said B.C. residents no longer believed Eby and told him, “You have had a decade to try to fix what’s happening in this province.” Lowan pointed to Eby’s decision to slow construction on seven long-term care projects. “This year’s election bribes are next year’s broken promises,” she said. Eby promised last week that the seven projects were back on track.

Near the end of the debate, two party leaders whose parties did not meet the participation threshold appeared in taped messages. CentreBC Leader Elenore Sturko and interim OneBC Leader Dallas Brodie were once caucus colleagues among the Conservatives but later split off. Sturko described her party as socially progressive and fiscally responsible, and said she would bring a centrist voice to Victoria.

Brodie said her party would push for a 25 per cent income tax cut for both individuals and corporations, and promised to end what she called the “greed and corruption” of the “reconciliation industry.” The Canadian Press first published this report on Oct. 15, 2026.