John Rustad

It's the last week of the British Columbia election campaign after a busy long weekend of promises for the B.C. Conservatives, including a new Children's Hospital for Surrey.

British Columbia billionaire Chip Wilson has put up yet another billboard message to voters, his third post outside his multimillion-dollar mansion in NDP Leader David Eby's own riding.

New Democrat Leader David Eby says he's focusing his provincial election campaign on commitments to B.C. residents after acknowledging he didn't speak enough about his team's work on the cost of living at Tuesday's debate.

B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad has changed his story about seeing a man die of a drug overdose on his way to a televised election debate, after the BC Coroners Service said it had no record of such a death where he said it occurred.

British Columbia's three party leaders offered starkly different visions of the province and its future on Tuesday in the only televised debate of what appears to be an increasingly close election campaign.

Conservatives, like Lululemon founder Chip Wilson, keep describing their opponents as communists — all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

The leaders of British Columbia's three major political parties are set to debate the key issues of this provincial election campaign to be broadcast tonight on all major TV networks.

NDP Leader David Eby promised on Sunday to support police in British Columbia to keep illegal guns off the streets and protect communities, but accused B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad of planning to make the province less safe.

The British Columbia's New Democrats released the party's platform on Thursday days after the Greens unveiled a plan for government ahead of the election on Oct. 19.

The New Democrats have already announced many components of the platform, including recent promises for an annual tax cut worth $1,000 for the average family starting next year, and a plan to fast-track factory-built homes.

The debate on Vancouver station CKNW brought NDP Leader David Eby, B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad and Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau into the same room for the first time on the campaign trail ahead of the Oct. 19 vote.

Several Conservative Party candidates running in the B.C. election have spent years spreading climate conspiracy theories online, highlighting the extent to which climate misinformation infiltrates the party.

Andrew Watson, a spokesman for Elections BC, says new electronic vote tabulators mean officials hope to have the first results within 15 minutes of polls closing at 8 p.m., half of all votes counted within about 30 minutes, and for the count to be "substantially complete" within an hour.

But perhaps the worst housing idea Rustad has shared is his pledge to create a new tax deduction of up to $3,000 per month for mortgage and rent payments that would cost the provincial treasury $3.5 billion in foregone revenue

Crime, health care, housing, illicit drugs and the economy will dominate the B.C. election campaign that kicks off on Sat.