(Bloomberg) — The political party that governed British Columbia for 16 years at the start of this century has withdrawn from its election after a collapse in its poll numbers.

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Conservatives Gain in Tight BC Election Race as Rival Party Disintegrates Back to video

The BC United Party, formerly known as the BC Liberals, will suspend its campaign ahead of the Oct. 19 election in Canada’s third most populous province, representatives said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.

The dramatic move may help consolidate votes behind the BC Conservatives, giving that party a boost in its battle to wrest control from the left-leaning BC New Democratic Party, which has been in power since 2017.

“I know that the best thing for the future of our province is to defeat the NDP, but we cannot do that when the center-right vote is split,” BC United Leader Kevin Falcon said in a joint statement with Conservative Leader John Rustad. Falcon said the party’s supporters should back Rustad. 

A BC Conservative victory would herald significant policy changes. The party has promised to cut taxes, including a carbon tax, while expanding development of liquefied natural gas and pipelines for oil and gas. 

It’s a stunning admission of defeat for BC United — a party that, under the Liberal name, finished first or second in every provincial election since 1991. In 2001, it won 77 of 79 seats in the legislature, the first of five straight elections in which it won the most seats.

But in 2022, the party expelled lawmaker John Rustad, a former provincial cabinet minister, after a social media post in which he cast doubt over the link between carbon dioxide and climate change. Rustad has exacted revenge — he subsequently became leader of the BC Conservative Party and led it out of the political wilderness. Polls say he has a shot at defeating Premier David Eby’s NDP, though it’s a close race.

The BC Liberal Party was independent and not formally affiliated with the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal of Party of Canada. Still, the relative unpopularity of Trudeau and the Liberal brand in Western Canada may have encouraged Falcon to rename the party last year. It didn’t work.

Right-leaning parties are now in power in most of Canada’s provinces, and Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, has built a large lead over Trudeau’s Liberals in opinion polls. A federal election is scheduled for October 2025, though the timing may change.