Former UBCM president calls B.C. snap election a ‘party foul’ that could have waited

VICTORIA — A British Columbia municipal leader said warnings about overlapping elections are coming true, as the snap provincial election on Oct. 24 is soaking up staff and attention from the municipal elections on Oct. 17.

Earlier this month, and before Premier David Eby called the provincial election, the Union of British Columbia Municipalities passed an emergency resolution that asked provincial party leaders to respect the principle of separate periods for local and provincial elections.

Eby said during his UBCM appearance on Sept. 18 that his government would take the resolution under advisement, but then called a provincial election days later.

Less than a week later, Cori Ramsay, the former UBCM president, said that the provincial election is already impacting the municipal election.

She said staff hired to work in the local elections are rescinding their contracts to work in the provincial election for better pay, citing the chief election officer of Prince George, B.C., where she is running for re-election.

“I don’t have a figure … but it has been enough to have him pulling his hair out,” she said. “So, it is unfortunately, impacting local elections, as we suspected it would,” she added.

The municipal leader said in an interview that municipalities will be left scrambling to find and train staff to run the local election, whose general voting day of Oct. 17 falls into the advanced voting period for the provincial election of Oct. 16 to Oct. 21.

Ramsay said that she anticipates that the competition for staff will leave municipalities short-handed, leading to long lines and frustrations on Oct. 17 when voters face not one, but two election lineups.

“It’s going to run the risk that people are not going to line up twice,” she said. “They are not going to line up forever for incredibly long periods in the municipal election, only to go then line up for the provincial election.”

Ramsay made these comments in an interview Sunday after posting on social media about her frustration with the provincial snap election.

“Saddened to learn local election workers are hopping over to the provincial election and leaving municipalities in the lurch,” she wrote. “I don’t know about you, but this snap election seems like a party foul to me that could have waited four weeks.”

When asked why she used the words “party foul,” she said it seemed like an appropriate description of the decision to call a provincial election.

“It’s a rude behaviour, a social mistake,” she said. “We asked the premier at UBCM. I had asked the premier, ‘You know, why can’t we wait for four weeks? What is going to be different four weeks from now with the tariffs?'”

Ramsay said it is one thing to have overlapping elections, but it is another thing for the premier to say that he would take the UBCM resolution under advisement, then call an election that sees advanced voting in the provincial election fall on the same day as general voting for the municipal election.

“I don’t know that it can be called anything other than a party foul,” she said.

Ramsay said the overlapping elections are also leading to a competition for volunteers, adding that people normally supporting municipal candidates have already switched over to provincial candidates.

Media, especially in smaller communities, will also be hard-pressed to cover both elections, she said.

“I think the election coverage is going to suffer, which is doing it a disservice, because there is so much going on right now,” Ramsay said, adding that the attention should be on municipal issues without the provincial election overshadowing them.

“It’s already diverting attention, diverting volunteers,” she said.

Other municipal leaders including Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim have criticized the early election call, but Eby has said that there is never a wrong time to ask British Columbians for input about the direction of the province amid the tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2026.

Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press