British Columbia Unity Party
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The British Columbia Unity Party is a right wing political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party was an attempted union of the Reform Party of British Columbia, the British Columbia Social Credit Party, the British Columbia Conservative Party, the British Columbia Party, and the British Columbia Family Coalition Party. Currently, only the Family Coalition and segments of Reform BC comprise the party. Reform BC was renewed by Ron Gamble after an attempted de-registration by Unity Party leader Chris Delaney and former BC permier Bill Vander Zalm).
All five of these parties were right-of-centre, right-wing, or conservative in nature, and it was organized to present a united conservative option to voters in order to do well in elections. The deal soon fell apart. Reform, and Social Credit dropped out soon after this, and the other parties also followed.
Despite nominating 56 candidates across the province in the 2001 provincial elections, the party only received 3.2% of the vote (51,426). This was the largest number of votes of any of the parties to the right of the conservative Liberal Party, but fewer votes than the Greens and edging out the Marijuana Party by only 220 votes.
BC Unity claimed to be poised to benefit from conservative dissatisfaction with the Liberal government of Premier Gordon Campbell.
On September 1, 2004, BC Unity and the British Columbia Conservative Party announced an agreement-in-principle for the two parties to merge under the Conservative Party name. The deal, however, fell through after the Conservatives withdrew. BC Unity leader Chris Delaney accepted blame for the failure of the merger proposal, and resigned. Rumours emerged among the merger hopefuls that the attempt failed due to sabotage by BC Liberal insiders, and some even suggested Delaney had been bribed or ideologically convinced to shut the party down.
Delaney subsequently resigned. Former Reform BC members, where Delaney's support largely lay, left the party. The majority of the executive members also left, many joining new or old margin parties.
BC Unity has named Daniel Stelmacker as its interim leader. Stelmacker was the party's sole nominated candidate for the 2005 provincial election, running in Skeena riding. He won 213 votes, 1.74% of the total for the riding.
See also
External link
- BC Unity (http://www.bcunity.ca)