Various external forms of ratfuckery from Alberta culture leaking into the ripe compost of BC bigotry : KlownKonvoy fans running rallies, the Take Back Alberta crowd running various astroturfing schemes, funding flowing into rural communities for campaigning via Harper-derived organizations, and as one NDP campaigner pointed out, intense "microtargeting" in social media in a divide-and-conquer approach which was successful.
People are unhappy about the economy and are blaming local conditions; combined with anti-Trudeau tribalism it's all very emotional and truth doesn't mean anything.
By believing weird claims online. Friend of mine that immigrated to Canada and got citizenship recently, voted for conservatives because he is now anti-immigrant and believes Trudeau gov/NDP are giving too much support to immigrants. The youtube algorithm has turned him into believing conspiracy stuff
The fact that they've managed to hold on well despite the massive anti-incumbent feelings worldwide is actually quite an accomplishment. Governments have been flipping almost everywhere else lately as people try to blame global inflation on their local parties.
I find it interesting that for decades, I heard people saying “gotta vote liberal/conservative to keep the conservatives/liberals from getting in. NDP? They have no experience governing and look at the debt the SoCreds got us into.”
And now that they’ve finally had a chance, they’ve shown us they can do a pretty good job without the corruption of the Liberals or the “burn everything down and revert to the 1950s” of the Conservatives.
What they haven’t figured out yet, because they’re actually about governing the people and not about gaining advantage for a minority group, is how to market themselves and distract people with single issue causes.
This riding is fucking stupid too, the re-districting really messed it up. There are two sizable population centers in it, but you cannot drive between those two locations without driving for almost an hour through other electoral districts.
Juan-de-fuca Malahat if anyone was wondering, it's essentially Sooke (and region) plus Mill Bay and Shawnigan Lake.