B.C. begins voting without Conservatives' costed platform, Doerkson calls it imminent

British Columbians have started voting without the release of a costed platform from the B.C. Conservatives, whose leader says it will be announced "imminently."

Interim leader Lorne Doerkson says he has seen the platform but wants to make sure they're aren't going to promise anything the party "can't make happen."

He said earlier this week that British Columbians would see a "fulsome plan" from the party before voters go to the polls, although advance polls are open today through to next Wednesday before election day on Oct. 24. 

The provincial New Democrats and Green Party both released their costed platforms earlier this week. 

Doerkson, who was at a campaign stop in Port Moody, reiterated his party's plans to build a women's and children's hospital in Surrey, along with scrapping the Massey Tunnel replacement in favour of a bridge and cutting income taxes by up to $1,000 a year "for nearly every working British Columbian."

NDP Leader David Eby says the lack of a costed platform on an estimated $5 billion worth of promises shows the Conservatives don't want to share their plans for cuts. 

"He is going to pay for it the same way that Conservative parties in B.C. have always paid for these promises, by cutting the services that you and your family depend on," Eby said Friday during a campaign stop in Coquitlam, B.C.

Doerkson said he wants to avoid what Eby's New Democrats did by breaking promises such as a doctor for every resident who wants one and giving people a $1,000 rebate. 

"None of those things happened, and our deficit is now $14 billion," he said in explaining the delay for putting together a costed platform.

"We're working on it, but I want it to be right. I want the numbers to be right and I want to know with an absolute clear conscience that the things that we are promising British Columbians in that platform, we will be able to achieve."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.

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