Controversial Conservative Remarks Before Election

Brodie is third from the left, flanked by Greens and NDP

There are only days left until the British Columbia provincial election and already advance voting has seen the highest number of people coming in to cast their vote before October 19.

It's a highly contentious election with the New Democratic Party and in the latest polls the Conservatives are neck-and-neck. Earlier this week there was a televised debate between the three parties, NDP, Conservatives and the Greens.

That 90-minute debate revealed Conservative leader John Rustad not looking confident, hardly looking at the camera and having to go on the defensive as incumbent Premier David Eby launched numerous attacks, sometimes in concert with Green leader Sonia Furstenau.

But Eby was unsettled too, having to defend his record and not having much to show for his two years in power. Rustad said that Eby inherited a province that had a healthy bottom line of C$6 billion, but now is C$9 billion in the red, and what did he have to show for it?

The sniping between Rustad and Eby made Furstenau look like the only adult in the room, using the opportunity to explain the Greens' platform.

Then on Thursday evening, the neighbourhood I reside in held a Q&A with the candidates running in our ridings. Eby is in Vancouver-Point Grey, while Vancouver-Quilchena was the left-leaning stronghold of the BC Liberals, which morphed into BC United led by Kevin Falcon.

But in late August Falcon suddenly announced BC United was suspending its election campaign which resulted in total disarray; BC United candidates were not told of the news ahead of time and didn't know what to do, and neither did left-leaning voters.

In the end some candidates were taken up by the Conservatives, but some chose to run as independents.

So it will be interesting to see who will take Vancouver-Quilchena now that BC United is gone from the slate. 

I was surprised to see a number of Conservative signs up in my neighbourhood and even more so now that the candidate Dallas Brodie has been slammed by an indigenous leader for her racist remarks made at the event I attended.

An NDP candidate fired the salvo, bringing up Brodie's comments about First Nations people who want autonomy and equal footing, those rights come with responsibility.

"When a large percentage of your people are on the Downtown Eastside, it's important that you come and take responsibility for that piece as well. It's not okay to leave your people," she said.

Wade Grant of the Musqueam Indian Band attended the meeting and recorded the video of Brodie's remarks. 

"You could tell there were people in the audience who were uncomfortable with the answer," he said, adding that, "My reaction was one of disbelief for somebody who wants to be a leader in this province."

Many people were taken aback by what she said, as indigenous people in the Downtown Eastside is a complicated issue, and the reason why people end up there are for many different reasons. 

Brodie felt the moderator had cut her off, but he said she could use time in the next question to finish her remarks but she did not.

Nevertheless, it seems most people in the room were more supportive of the NDP and the Greens, and some political pundits are anticipating an NDP minority government propped up by the Greens.

We will find out soon enough...