The conundrum facing many B.C. voters in next week's election has been expressed this way: "I'm fed up with the Liberals, but I don't trust the NDP." Delta South voters are fortunate to have another choice with independent incumbent Vicki Huntington.
Both Huntington and Liberal candidate Bruce McDonald are fine people and excellent candidates with about 20 years experience in local politics. McDonald offers a return to representation by a backbencher of the party that downgraded Delta Hospital, caused dozens of families to leave their homes because of unnecessary overhead power lines, constructed the South Fraser Perimeter Road on an environmentally and agriculturally harmful alignment, introduced the HST and so on.
NDP candidate Nic Slater would also be a party backbencher, but he does not seem to be conversant with local issues.
What about strategic voting? The polls indicate the NDP will form a majority government (but not by a landslide). Locally, it is unlikely Delta South will elect an NDP candidate, even if the centre to centre-right vote is evenly split between McDonald and Huntington.
In the last election Huntington narrowly won because she received NDP support through strategic voting. McDonald supporters have argued in this newspaper that a vote for Huntington is a vote for the NDP; but a vote for Huntington is not wasted because she has an excellent chance of being elected.
In my view, if McDonald wins and the Liberals win provincially, then we are again subject to being shafted by a Liberal government as occurred before the last election. If McDonald wins and the NDP wins provincially, then we are represented by an Opposition MLA who will have absolutely no influence.
This will also be the case if Slater wins and the Liberals win provincially. We have no experience with the case of a backbench NDP MLA and an NDP government, however a newcomer such as Slater may not be sufficiently up to speed or influential to watch out for local interests.
Huntington remains a strategic choice for an NDP supporter because she is a strong advocate of environmental protection, supports a minimum wage, is thoroughly familiar with local issues and has developed working relationships with the NDP over the past four years in Victoria.
Huntington is also a strategic choice for right-of-centre voters who are fed up with the Liberals and figure the party needs some time on the bench. Huntington tends to be an economic conservative.
Voting for Slater would assist McDonald since Huntington needs some NDP support to be elected, but NDP strength in Delta South is not likely sufficient to elect Slater.
She would have more influence to moderate the progressive inclinations of an NDP government than a Liberal backbencher would.
The major party choices are not good. Glen Clark's chief of staff is leading the NDP and Christy Clark appears to be out of ideas (except for taxing the rich) and to be running only to stay in power.
Delta South is under severe development pressure. South Deltans should vote defensively and strategically, and they are fortunate to have a credible, honest and electable independent candidate.
