Bob Mackin
By now, you should have received your official Elections BC voting card, telling you the addresses for the nearest polling stations in the snap election.
You may have also received an official-looking envelope branded “BC Votes Decision 2020.”
You are forgiven if you mistook it for a letter from Elections BC, due to the font of the logo.
Look closely at the small print on the letter. It is from the NDP.
A reader in Vancouver-False Creek, where Brenda Bailey hopes to knock-off BC Liberal incumbent Sam Sullivan, forwarded the direct mail envelope and letter, which is signed by NDP field director Jordan Reid.
Reid is a former aide to the late Jack Layton and a B.C. NDP campaign worker since 2016.
According to Elections BC, there is nothing wrong with the envelope or letter.
“Voters with concerns about this letter should contact the BC NDP,” said spokeswoman Melanie Hull. “The letter does include an authorization statement as required by the Election Act. The Act does not regulate the content or branding of election advertising apart from requiring an authorization statement.”
The letter is a get out the vote strategy indicating the NDP is confident of victory, if it can get out the vote. In 2017, Sullivan stayed in office by a narrow 415-vote margin over NDP challenger Morgane Oger. Oger was hampered by a smear campaign that drew the condemnation of the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.
Bailey is on leave from her job as executive director with DigiBC, the Interactive and Digital Media Industry Association of B.C.
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