2 weeks Ago By Lisa Steacy
The leaders of B.C.'s main political parties sparred over health care, housing and affordability Tuesday, pitching competing visions for how to address the most urgent issues facing the province in a debate punctuated by a few feisty exchanges.
The only televised, multi-platform debate in the lead up to the Oct. 19 election comes as polls show the race between the B.C.
NDP and the B.C. Conservatives remains tight.
David Eby and John Rustad aimed most of their barbs at one another while B.C. Greens Leader Sonia Furstenau said neither of her opponents or their parties had a plan to move the province forward or meaningfully address the problems British Columbians are struggling with.
Eby, in addition to defending his party's record on key issues over the past seven years, sought to draw attention to Rustad's record during his years in government as a B.C. Liberal.
He also took aim at the Conservative leader's controversial comments on things like climate change and vaccines. "What you hear from John Rustad – conspiracy theories, division, cuts – it's not going to solve the problems that we face," Eby said. Rustad, for his part, argued that the NDP's policies have made the province less safe and less affordable, saying that young people are considering leaving B.
C. in droves and that people are routinely dying on the streets from both crime and drugs – saying he saw someone die from an overdose in downtown Vancouver while on his way to the debate. "This is the British Columbia that David Eby has created.
Tent cities are growing all over the place. We have a crisis in health care. We've got a crisis in affordability.
We've got a crisis in housing," Rustad said. Furstenau described both of her opponents as politicians who have had the opportunity to make change but failed to come through – saying her party is the only one focused on the future and the only one offering innovative solutions. "What these two are offering is either more of the same or back to the past," she said.
"We find ourselves now 23 years downstream from a B.C. Liberal government and seven years downstream from an NDP government that hasn't been willing to do enough to change things.
" This is a developing story. More to come..
