BC Liberals' members vote to change party name to BC United

Members of the BC Liberals have voted to change the party's name to BC United.

Leader Kevin Falcon said 80 per cent of the voters who cast a ballot were in favour of the name change, and he was thrilled with the result.

The change first needs to be approved by members at convention, which Falcon said would likely be early next year.

It's also up to them to decide when the change will be made, something Falcon said they want to be smart about.

He said if the NDP government and incoming premier, David Eby, called an election, he wouldn't change the name immediately.

“I know that we did bring in fixed election dates, but I also know that this government has broken those fixed election dates in the past,” Falcon said.

John Horgan's New Democrat government won a majority after calling a snap election in October 2020.

Falcon said they want to be careful about their timing on any change.

About 8,100 of the party's 45,000 members voted, which Falcon called a success.

“We've gone through a really robust process here that I'm really very proud of, it's really engaged the membership.”

He dismissed concerns a name change might be confusing. “It's not like we're Coca-Cola,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2022.