Of the many surprising moves made so far in the 2024 B.C. election, one of the most perplexing has been the BC NDP’s decision to haul the independent agency overseeing our electoral process into court, to try and reverse its non-partisan decisions.

It’s an attack most political observers didn’t see coming. How could a party that’s been in government seven years, who is railing against the importation of American-style politics where the very legitimacy of the voting process is under attack, possibly think it was a good idea to challenge the independent judgement of Elections BC mid-campaign?

Yet here we are, with the New Democratic Party of British Columbia v the Chief Electoral Officer on the court docket in B.C. Supreme Court, 12 days before election day.

At issue is the name John Rustad’s BC Conservative party is using on election ballots. It’s not BC Conservatives. Or Conservative Party of BC. Instead, it’s just: Conservative Party.

“He's pretending to be part of the federal Conservative party,” said NDP leader David Eby. “He's not.

“He's misleading people, and he needs to be honest about who he is, which party he's running with, what their positions are (and) their goal to increase people's costs and advance conspiracy theories.”

B.C.’s Election Act largely allows parties to choose whatever ballot name they want, as long as it’s........

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