BURST
The B.C. Conservatives have filed a complaint with Elections B.C., accusing the NDP of sending a letter to voters that contains false information and could be mistaken for official government correspondence.
The letter is signed by Dr. Habib Ur-Rehman, a family physician on the North Shore who moved to B.C. from England in early 2025. In it, he urges voters to re-elect the NDP and suggests the Conservatives would cut health-care spending.
“It’s sad, desperate and simply not true,” Brennan Day, Tory candidate for Courtenay-Comox, responded on X on Tuesday, describing the letter as “disgusting” and “misleading.”
“The NDP are accusing the Conservatives of wanting to cut health care and that could not be farther from the truth.”
The Tories say the letter not only contains false information, but also a disclaimer printed in tiny print on the envelope and bottom of the letter — that the mail-out was authorized by the NDP — could easily be missed, especially by seniors.
They accused the NDP of designing the envelope — which includes the phrases “voting information enclosed,” “time sensitive — open immediately” and “your participation is critical” — to resemble Elections B.C. mail.
“Given the speed of the snap election, everybody’s still waiting to get their voting cards, and this is clearly designed by the NDP to look like Elections B.C. mail,” said Day. “And quite frankly, if it doesn’t cross the line in terms of legality, absolutely it should not be allowed during provincial election campaigns.”
At a media availability Tuesday, NDP Leader David Eby dismissed the complaint, saying the party uses a variety of tools to talk to B.C. residents, including direct mailers, radio ads, internet ads and press conferences.
“It is hard to reach people on such important issues like the election,” Eby said.
He said the message the doctor in the letter was trying to convey was, ” ‘Hey, I came to British Columbia because of the public health-care system. The reason why I’m practising here, I’ve seen what it looks like when there are massive cuts to health care. We don’t want to go down that road.’ ”
Eby added the letter is “quite explicit to people about where it’s coming from and what the message is.”
Longtime journalist Stanley Tromp, who shared with Postmedia News a copy of the letter he received in the mail, said voters might not be able to see the disclaimer because of how small and pale the print is.
“It was a little puzzling at first because I haven’t seen anything quite like it before in all these 40 years of watching politics,” he said. ” ‘Voter information enclosed.’ I thought, well, that sounds a little bit like this is going to be information on where and when you vote, at first glance.”
Stewart Prest, a political science lecturer at the University of B.C., said the real concern is that communication strategies like this could undermine the trust of voters.
“If voters come away thinking they can’t trust even communications from Elections B.C., non-partisan communications about the conduct of elections, that’s a very dangerous place for our democracy to be. So I do think the NDP should be criticized for moving in this direction,” said Prest. “It does seem to be a move borne out of desperation. Because if you were comfortably ahead, you wouldn’t risk this kind of controversy.”
Prest said that while it may not go against elections laws, the letter goes against the spirit of the law in trying to create the appearance of official correspondence.
“There’s no reason why the envelope has to look the way it does and the fact that it is paper communication means that they are targeting an audience that is probably on the older side and more likely to still read snail mail.”
He added that it may be time to revisit election rules and decide whether this type of advertising goes too far.
Election advertising must identify the sponsor and provide contact information under the Elections Act, but there is no requirement on size of font or placement of the sponsor, according to Elections B.C.
Elections B.C. said it will review the complaint, but it’s not yet known whether it will result in an official investigation.
B.C. voters head to the polls Saturday.