Kelowna City Councillor Loyal Wooldridge will now be only be one of two candidates in the race for of MLA in the Kelowna-Centre riding after a surprise announcement on August 28, that the 2024 BC United election campaign will be suspended.

"This is a testament that the right wing is playing games," said Loyal Wooldridge, a candidate for the New Democratic Party (NDP) of BC. 

Wooldridge, along with politicians across the province, including those representing BC United, were unaware that the party would be pulling out of the election. 
However, Woolridge said that as of late, the polls have indicated that BC United would not be competitive in the October 19 election.

There was concern that having both the center-right BC United and the right wing Conservatives running in the same election may cause a vote-split, resulting in a left wing NDP victory, said Kevin Falcon said in a press conference following the announcement on August 28.

The new goal of the party is to "unite the centre right," said Falcon.

Now, BC United Party and the Conservative Party will be working together to ensure the best MLA candidates will run in the election under the name of the Conservative Party, with the primary goal of defeating the BC NDP party.  As such, there may be changes to who is on the ballot in the October election. 

In the Kelowna-Centre riding, Dr. Michael Humer was the candidate for the BC United Party and Kristina Loewen represents the Conservative Party of BC. 

In Kelowna-Mission, Ashley Ramsay was running for United and Gavin Dew is the recently appointed Conservative candidate. 

sa国际传媒淜evin Falcon deserves respect for doing the right thing," said Dew in a statement to Black Press.

Pavneet Singh was the BC United representative for the Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream riding, with Tara Armstrong, Stephanie Hendy and Anna Warwick Sears running for the Conservative, Green and New Democratic Parties. 

Black Press has reached out to the candidates for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication. Statements will be added as they become available. 

Wooldridge fears that the change being announced only six weeks before the election will cause "chaos and confusion," among voters. 

"This is an example of career politicians playing games," said Wooldridge about the decision.

He said that people should not have to "wade through" constantly changing information to figure out who they want to vote for. 

"From the get-go we have been focused on stability," said Wooldridge. "This demonstrates the contrast between the stability of the NDP and the chaos of the right."