Falcon Wins BC Liberal Leadership Race

Kevin Falcon/Facebook

On February 6, 2022, former Deputy Premier Kevin Falcon was elected as the new leader of the BC Liberal Party, winning over 52 per cent of the vote. His nearest competitor was Ellis Ross, who finished with approximately 24 percent of the vote. Michael Lee came in third with 14 per cent, followed by Val Litwin, Gavin Dew, Renee Merrifield and Stan Sipos, who were all dropped after four ballots.

Prior to the election, Falcon was a cabinet minister under former Premier Christy Clark. He served as the province’s Minister of Finance and as the 12th Deputy Premier of British Columbia. In 2011, Falcon lost to Clark in his bid for Liberal party leader. Then, in 2012, Falcon announced he was stepping back from politics to spend more time with his family and focus on his work with a Vancouver investment and property development firm. After the BC Liberal Party’s 2020 election loss with the lowest seat count since 1991, Falcon announced he would run for Liberal Party leader once again.

Upon winning, Falcon prepared a speech that highlighted his priorities as the new leader of the BC Liberal Party. He spoke about his plan to diversify the party’s candidate and membership base, address environmental issues, and address affordability. Falcon pledged to reconstruct the BC Liberal party to attract more voters.

“I want to see British Columbians of all races, sexualities, genders, cultures, religions, and all economic backgrounds to know that they can join us as proud BC Liberals,” Falcon said in his speech.

The BC Liberal party is separate from the federal Liberal party.

During the leadership race, the party gained over 20,000 members which raised concerns and led to an internal audit.

Vikram Bajwa, a businessman and member of the BC Liberal Party, started a last-minute petition because he speculated that memberships were not properly audited and reasonable steps were not taken to ensure voter eligibility. He requested that the BC Supreme Court delay the release of the results for 15 days pending the audit conducted by the BC Liberals. However, Justice Heather MacNaughton denied Baywa’s request because she believed it would be unfair to the other party members and his concerns did not have enough evidence in support.

With the leadership race over and Kevin Falcon taking over the provincial liberals, British Columbians should expect to see a shift in the dynamics. To quote Falcon, “I mean this sincerely, I would rather not win unless the party is prepared to be rock solid behind me in the change of direction I want to take this party.’’