The race for B.S. Premier Andrew Weaver has pitted the party against its top two candidates for the job of interim leader, and that race has turned into a test of the B for Blue party’s strength in a region where guns are a hot-button issue.
The top two contenders in the race for the B, former B.F.M. party president Terry Lake and Vancouver-area lawyer and political commentator Mark Burdick, have emerged with the advantage, said Geoff D’Orazio, an associate professor of political science at the University of British Columbia.
The race was close before the weekend, with the top two leaders receiving roughly half of the vote, said D’Orzio, who is also the director of the Angus Reid Institute.
The B.B.C.-B.
S Green Party and the Bismarck-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of B.L.C., meanwhile, each have about 1,000 more votes.
The Greens, which is backed by Weaver and B.D. Howe, have led the opposition to the Brought In Firearms Act and the Firearms Owners Protection Act, while the Blue Cross has been one of the strongest proponents of gun control legislation in B.A.C..
The two parties have clashed in other ways, with both supporting legislation to ban firearms at all federal and provincial level and opposing the introduction of an omnibus bill to reduce gun crime.
Lake is the former chief of staff to former Premier Gordon Campbell and the founder and president of the Vancouver-based firearms-focused business Black Powder Solutions, while Burdicks’ resume includes the business of working as a political adviser to former NDP Leader Tom Mulcair.