The political aspirations of three Richmond candidates, who were supposed to run with the BC United Party, appear to be unclear as the party is now backing the BC Conservatives.
BC United leader Kevin Falcon announced Wednesday he's withdrawing from the provincial election in order not to split the centre-right vote.
But Richmond-Steveston BC United candidate Jackie Lee said he's still going out door-knocking on Wednesday although he won't be handing out any brochures.
Lee said he was told by Falcon Wednesday, in a meeting, that each riding will be looked at individually to decide who the candidate will be.
"There's lots of moving parts and lots of logistics (to sort out)," Lee told the News.
Lee said he's knocked on 5,000 doors since announcing his candidacy in December, and he wants to keep engaging with the community, especially since he has 200 volunteers helping him.
A joint BC Conservative/BC United statement states that nominations for BC United candidates "will be withdrawn to enable the Conservative Party of BC to draw from BC United's pool of incredible incumbent MLAs and candidates."
The BC Conservatives, however, already have candidates in place for all four Richmond ridings, including incumbent MLA Teresa Wat, who switched from BC United to the Conservatives about a month ago.
So far, Wendy Yuan has registered as the BC United candidate for Richmond Centre and Lee has registered to unseat BC NDP Kelly Greene.
Richmond city Coun. Alexa Loo, who's Yuan's campaign co-chair, said Yuan has been knocking on doors since "day one" of announcing she's running. So far, she's knocked on 7,000 doors, Loo said, and she has "a lot of passion" for what she's doing.
Pavan Bahia was announced as the Richmond-Queensborough BC United candidate to challenge BC NDP MLA Aman Singh, but his name is not listed under Elections BC's list of candidates.
The right-of-centre BC United, formerly known as the BC Liberals, has been trailing in polls to both the BC NDP and BC Conservatives.
“For the better part of two decades, Kevin Falcon has worked tirelessly to make our province a better place,” Rustad said in the media statement Wednesdat.
“I encourage all Conservative MLAs, candidates and supporters to join me in sincerely thanking Kevin Falcon for doing the right thing, for his exemplary public service and for making the hard but right decision today.”
- with files from Business in Vancouver/Canadian Press
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