SURREY, B.C. - BC Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson is promising that a Conservative government would introduce a Respect Local Democracy Act as one of its first acts, permanently separating the provincial and municipal election calendars in law and barring any provincial vote, snap or scheduled, within 60 days of municipal elections.
The pledge lands with voters headed to the polls twice in eight days: municipal and school board elections on October 17, then the provincial snap vote on October 24. Doerkson said the overlap has swallowed local campaigns, with council candidates, school trustees and first-time mayoral candidates being asked which election they are running in instead of talking about roads, transit and rec centres. “When everyone is shouting, it gets harder to hear anyone,” Doerkson said in the October 14 release.
Doerkson put the cost of the snap election at approximately $80 million, accusing Premier David Eby of calling it “in a desperate attempt to cling to power” despite holding a majority with a mandate that ran to the fixed election date of October 2028. The release does not include a response from the NDP. Eby has previously said he needed a stronger mandate to deal with U.S. tariffs.
The proposed Act would apply to every premier of every party, according to the release, which notes the problem is set to recur: under current law, the next fixed provincial election date and the next general local election date both fall on Saturday, October 19, 2030. The existing provision letting cabinet move the provincial date is discretionary and sets no minimum gap, the release says.
The Act remains a campaign pledge, not a bill before the legislature. A Conservative government would need to win the October 24 vote and introduce the legislation before it carried any legal weight.
(Source: BC Conservative Party media release, October 14, 2026)
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