Falcon elected new B.C. Liberal leader

Kevin Falcon is the new leader of the B.C. Liberal Party. He won in the fifth round with 52.19 per cent of the vote in the ranked ballot contest.

Falcon beat out six other candidates vying for the top job, including serving MLAs Michael Lee, Ellis Ross, and Renee Merrifield, alongside business leaders Gavin Dew, Val Litwin and Stan Sipos.

“We were leaders once, and let me tell you here tonight, we will be leaders again in the province of British Columbia,” Falcon said. “B.C. needs and deserves a government that believes that a private sector driven economy is the best way to generate revenues so we can fund first class public services.”

Throughout the leadership race, he said the Liberals need to reboot, rebuild, and possibly rebrand.

He reiterated this in his victory speech, noting the need for a “root to branch rebuild” to reenergize the base and attract new members.

He said he’s already started this, signing up thousands of diverse new members during the campaign. He stressed a need to grow into a diverse force worthy of governing. He said the party needs to connect with voters in all corners of the province to win back seats lost in recent elections.

Falcon is a former Liberal MLA and government minister who left politics a decade ago to spend more time with his young family. He works with a Vancouver investment and property development firm.

In cabinet, he served as the Minister of State for Deregulation, Transportation and Infrastructure, Health, as well as Deputy Premier and Finance Minister. He ran for leadership in 2011 and placed second to Christy Clark.

As he is not a sitting MLA, Falcon will need to seek election somewhere in the province. It’s speculated former leader Andrew Wilkinson will resign and Falcon will run in his Vancouver-Quilchena riding. Once someone steps down, it will be on Premier John Horgan to call a by-election.

Falcon nearly walked through on the first ballot, where he raked in 47 per cent of the vote. His win was essentially guaranteed at this point, with his next closest competitor in Ellis Ross at 26.7.

Kelowna – Mission MLA Renee Merrifield fell off in the second round with just 3.3 per cent of the tally.

The party membership cast votes online and over the phone from Thursday morning to Saturday evening. Each of the province's 87 electoral districts was allocated 100 points. A candidate needed to receive 4,350 points, plus one to be declared the winner.

Membership Questions

The ability for the party to even announce the results Saturday night hung in the balance until just hours before the news.

Earlier in the day, a judge rejected a last-minute bid to delay the process.

Justice Heather MacNaughton ruled against a petition brought by Vikram Bajwa, who asked the B.C. Supreme Court for an order to delay a release of the results over concerns about the party's recent audit of new members it signed up during the leadership campaign.

Bajwa wanted the results delayed for 15 days and for an order to require the Liberals to provide details of its audit of thousands of new members signed up during the leadership campaign.

The party gained more than 20,000 members during the leadership process for a total of about 43,000.

The party was voting to replace Andrew Wilkinson, who resigned following defeat in the 2020 provincial election.

-- With files from The Canadian Press