B.C. Conservative leader dismisses calls to merge with Liberals

Some B.C. business leaders are calling on the province's Liberals and Conservatives to join forces to fight the NDP in the next provincial elections, but the surging Conservative leader is dismissing the idea.

A recent poll put the NDP in first placewith 43 per cent of the vote, while the B.C. Conservatives and the governing B.C. Liberals were tied for second place with 23 per cent each.

The president of the Independent Contractors and Business Association, Phil Hochstein, says many business people would like to see the Liberals and Conservatives find a way to cooperate.

"I think all parties on the right have a responsibility to the province and the majority of the people to find a way to work together to avoid electing an NDP government," said Hochstein.

He isn't sure what form that cooperation might take, perhaps an informal arrangement, a coalition or a merger, but he says there's a lot of frustration in the business community and a lot of talk.

"People are shaking their heads in the business community, cannot understand why the two free enterprise parties are not in any way working together, cooperating to stop what the majority of British Columbians don't want, is an NDP government."

But B.C. Conservative Leader John Cummins dismisses the idea of cooperating with the governing Liberals.

"It's nonsense really. There is absolutely no interest in the new B.C. Conservative Party in forming any sort of a coalition or agreement with the discredited B.C. LIberals."

Cummins says has heard countless times how his party will simply split the vote and help elect the NDP, but says it will be Liberals who split the vote in the end.

"The truth of the matter in my view is that come the next election it will be a shootout between the B.C. Conservatives and the NDP, and the Liberals will be the spoiler factor."

Once dominant party rising

The B.C. Conservatives currently have justone MLA,former Liberal cabinet minister John van Dongenwho crossed the floor last month.

But the party is considered to have a good chance of winning a seat its first seat since the 1980's inthe upcoming Chilliwack-Hope byelection on April 19,even though the B.C. Liberals have been runningattack ads attempting to protray Cumminsas untrustworthy since September.

B.C.'s Conservatives, who once dominated the province's political landscape, have not won a seat in more than three decades, despite running candidates in every B.C. election since 1903.

Part of the reason for that was the rise of the Social Credit Party in the 1950s, which stole the Conservatives' traditional rural vote and dominated provincial politics for 40 years.

Liberals launch ideas website

Meanwhile the B.C. Liberals are trying to shore up the struggling party ahead of next year's election with a new website called the Ideas Lab.

Education Minister George Abbott, who chairs Liberal Election Platform, says the sitewww.ideaslab.caallows party members and the general public to submit policy ideas for the party for the next election and beyond.

The ideas will be posted online and discussed on the website before party members vote on them, although the results won't be binding on the party.