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B.C. election at a glance: NDP talks nursing ratios, Conservatives tout Surrey plan
B.C. election at a glance: Nursing, Surrey, arts
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
The British Columbia election campaign is in its closing stages, with advance voting wrapping up ahead of final voting day on Saturday.
Here are some of the latest developments on the campaign trail.
ADVANCE VOTING DROPS SHARPLY
Six days of advance voting have ended, with Elections BC data showing numbers are down more than 11 per cent compared to 2024, bucking a two-decade upward trend.
There were 891,348 advance votes cast from Friday to Wednesday, representing about 24 per cent of all registered voters.
That compares to more than one million advance votes cast in 2024, when numbers spiked 49 per cent over the previous election.
This year's advance voting period overlapped with the municipal election that had its final voting day last Saturday.
EBY AND DOERKSON FOCUS ON SURREY
Interim B.C. Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson has unveiled what he calls the "Surrey success plan" for B.C.'s second-largest city.
Both Doerkson and NDP leader Eby have been concentrating on vote-rich Surrey in the final week of the campaign.
Doerkson says his party's plan has three pillars, health care, transit and transportation.
Both parties have pledged new hospitals and to extend the SkyTrain to Surrey's Newton neighbourhood, but differ on how to handle traffic problems, with the Conservatoves vowing to scrap an upgrade of the Massey tunnel in favour of a 10-lane bridge.
Doerkson is scheduled to hold a rally in the city that has 10 ridings later Thursday, while Eby was in Surrey on Wednesday and held a rally near city hall that drew hundreds of supporters.
The NDP leader, campaigning in Vancouver on Thursday, called Surrey "a vitally important city in the province."
NDP VOWS TO PUT NURSE-PATIENT RATIOS INTO LAW
Eby says the NDP would put minimum nurse-to-patient ratios into law.
He says in a campaign stop outside Vancouver General Hospital, where he was surrounded by nurses and other health care workers that establishing the ratios is "technical work" and they will vary depending on what type of care is being provided.
Eby says that work is already underway, and putting the ratios into legislation will ensure "nurses are not diverted to other purposes."
The NDP says in a statement that Eby has committed to adding 1,000 training places for nurses, nurse practitioners, allied health workers and care aides.
GREENS ROLL OUT RED CARPET FOR THE ARTS
The BC Greens have announced the party's plan to support the arts, from the movie industry to local performing spaces.
Leader Emily Lowan says the party would make it easier to film, perform and create in B.C.
She says underinvestment in the arts and the "cost-of-living crisis" have meant the closure of community arts spaces and put "downward pressure" on artists who make the province vibrant.
The party says it will make B.C. the easiest place in North America for film permitting, bring in simpler zoning and lower fees for smaller venues booking local artists, and increase the BC Arts Council budget by more than 50 per cent to $65 million.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2026.
By Canadian Press Staff | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Miller says government moving quickly but no timeline for new digital regulator
Miller says no timeline for new digital regulator
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Culture Minister Marc Miller says while he shares concerns about how long the government’s new digital regulator will take to set up, he’s unable to say exactly when that will happen.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Miller said the government is moving as quickly as possible on digital safety bill C-16, which includes a ban on social media for kids.
Miller spoke at a conference in Montreal today which also heard from Alex Munter, head of the Canadian Medical Association, who said he was concerned about the timeline.
Government officials initially said it would take 18 months to set up the regulator but Munter said it could actually take twice as long.
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner told the conference a regulator will take time to establish, and noted her organization faced pushback from Big Tech platforms.
Miller says he’s not "naive" about that possibility but he expects the Canadian regulator to have a healthy back and forth with industry.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2026.
By Anja Karadeglija | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Incumbents have almost unbeatable head start in GTA elections
Thirteen of 14 immigrant and visible-minority candidates in the analysis won their races.
A seat on a municipal council is a stronger predictor of success for immigrant candidates than how much money they raise for their election campaigns, according to an analysis by New Canadian Media and interviews with academics who study electoral dynamics.
With Ontario voters heading to the polls on Oct. 26, NCM reviewed the audited 2022 financial statements of 14 candidates in Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton who have publicly identified as immigrants, the children of immigrants or members of a visible minority. Thirteen won.
NCM counted only candidates who identified themselves as immigrants in an interview, on social media or in an official biography.
Candidates who described themselves as immigrants or the children of immigrants, raised as much and often far more than their rivals in three of the most immigrant-heavy cities in Canada during the 2022 municipal elections. The ones who were already in office had an advantage over new candidates.
More than half of Mississauga's residents (53.2 per cent) and Brampton's (52.9 per cent) were born outside Canada, according to the 2021 census. In Toronto, that number was 46.6 per cent.
Money and office travelled together
Six of the 14 candidates were sitting members, and all six won. Bonnie Crombie raised $505,675 for the Mississauga mayoral race, more than 20 times her nearest rival. In Mississauga's Ward 7, Dipika Damerla raised $40,870, about three times the amount raised by the next closest candidate.
[caption id="attachment_43318" align="alignleft" width="375"] Dipika Damerla. Photo: The Pointer[/caption]
Toronto's Josh Matlow raised $90,668 compared to the $3,425 raised by his closest challenger. In Brampton, Martin Medeiros raised $62,812 against $5,750; and Pat Fortini and Rowena Santos also raised more campaign funds by wide margins. (Matlow is Canadian-born, and his Jewish identity is the only self-identification in our sample.)
The pattern held beyond our sample. In Mississauga, eight of the nine sitting members who ran for office, including the mayor, won.Ron Starr lost Ward 6 to Joe Horneck, 25 per cent to 60 per cent. In Brampton, seven of eight won; regional councillor Gurpreet Dhillon lost Wards 9 and 10 to Gurpartap Singh Toor. In Toronto, Mayor John Tory and 16 sitting councillors won, and Mark Grimes lost Ward 3 to Amber Morley.
[caption id="attachment_43322" align="alignright" width="389"] Rowena Santos. Photo: The Pointer[/caption]
Without an incumbent, money still mattered. In Toronto, Ausma Malik raised $105,944 to win Ward 10, about double that of the next candidate. Alejandra Bravo raised $102,681 in Ward 9 and Chris Moise raised $91,695 in Ward 13. Dianne Saxe won Ward 11 by 123 votes and raised $85,814 compared to the $61,759 raised by her closest rival, Norm Di Pasquale.
Across Toronto and Mississauga, the candidates who were the top fundraisers won 30 of 38 seats.
Where the money lost
In Mississauga Ward 9, Nokha Dakroub raised $37,985, the most in an 11-candidate field — more than twice what the winner, Martin Reid, raised. Still she finished second, 241 votes behind Reid. Alvin Tedjo won Mississauga's Ward 2 but raised less money than Silvia Gualtieri. Lily Cheng won Toronto's Ward 18, but didn’t raise as much for her campaign as Markus O'Brien Fehr.
[caption id="attachment_43321" align="alignleft" width="373"] Martin Medeiros. Photo: The Pointer[/caption]
Damerla, who won Ward 7 with 55 per cent of the vote, is now running for mayor and proposes term limits for the mayor and councillors.
"It's time for fresh ideas and letting somebody else come in," she told NCM. She said a three-term ceiling could open the door to new candidates, though a change like that would have to fit Ontario's legislative framework.
What the experts say
Erin Tolley, a Carleton University professor who studies diversity in Canadian politics, said incumbency is the biggest edge in municipal politics.
"Incumbency is by far the greatest advantage in municipal politics — there's no bigger advantage," she said. Name recognition, a track record on city council and relationships with voters is clearly valuable.
A 2024 study by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario reached a similar conclusion. Based on interviews and surveys with candidates and people considering municipal office, researchers found that many candidates had their first electoral success after an incumbent stepped down.
Some candidates also reported difficulty raising money to compete against sitting councillors. They said potential donors were reluctant to support a challenger because their contributions would become public, and they worried that if the incumbent won, the councillor might be less willing to help them in the future.
Randy Besco, a University of Toronto Mississauga political scientist, co-authored a 2022 study that found visible minorities donate less money on average to federal party candidates; South Asian donors were an exception.
Besco said the results didn't surprise him. "There are lots of very successful immigrants. It doesn't surprise me that some of them are very proficient fundraisers."
He said he has not tested whether the donor findings hold for municipal elections.
Besco cautioned against reading the incumbent's fundraising success as proof of an incumbency effect. Incumbents find it easier to raise money, he said, but "it's possible that it's kind of a selection effect." Candidates who can raise money are the ones who win. He said he doesn’t know which factor is greater.
Besco said immigrant candidates usually run for municipal council in the community where they live, and that wards with many immigrants are easier places for them to run because they might have community networks.
Sukhman Sangha, a lawyer running for an open regional council seat in Brampton's Wards 9 and 10, said money is not the first thing he would tell a new candidate to focus on.
Sangha said he was born in the riding and is the son of Punjabi immigrants. Nine other candidates are running for seats and only one other lives in the riding.
“The biggest obstacle for a first-time candidate in Peel is not knowing how to run a campaign,” Sangha said. He recommends that new candidates first work on someone else's campaign to gain experience in the municipal election system.
Sangha said his previous work as a senior advisor to Ontario's Minister of Transportation taught him how to navigate government. Whether he raised more than his rivals will not be public until the filing deadline in March.
Copyright 2026, New Canadian Media. All rights reserved.
Shilpashree Jagannathan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, New Canadian Media.
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Urgences-santé engage des étudiants pour l'été et c'est payé jusqu'à 22,91 $/h
Et tu n'as pas besoin d'être ambulancier.
Si tu n'as pas encore trouvé une job pour cet été, sache que l'organisation ambulancière Urgences-santé recrute présentement des étudiant.es à temps plein pour la saison estivale. L'équipe médicale recherche des préposé.es à l'entretien pour les ambulances, les équipements et la bâtisse. Tu pourrais recevoir un salaire allant jusqu'à 22,91 $ de l'heure et même t'ouvrir des portes dans le domaine de la santé.
Pour appliquer, quelques conditions sont demandées. Tu devras donc t'assurer de posséder un diplôme d'études secondaires, de détenir un permis de conduire de classe 5, d'être capable de soulever des charges d'au moins 40 kg et bien parler et écrire le français. Si tu as déjà travaillé dans un poste similaire ou que tu possèdes déjà des connaissances médicales, c'est encore mieux.
Si tu es choisi.e, tu auras plusieurs tâches à accomplir comme vérifier la conformité des équipements, effectuer des réparations et faire l'inventaire ainsi que le nettoyage du matériel paramédical. Tu devras vraiment t'assurer que tout fonctionne bien pour que le personnel de gestions de crise, comme les ambulancier.ères, puissent bien faire leur travail. Tu pourrais aussi être amené.e à t'occuper de l'inspection des véhicules d'urgence. Les quarts de travail par jour peuvent être assez longs et sont généralement de 8 à 12 heures.
L'offre comprend des avantages non négligeables comme un salaire horaire plus élevé que le salaire minimum au Québec ainsi que plusieurs avantages sociaux. Tu pourrais aussi recevoir des primes de soir, de nuit ou de fin de semaine.
Si tu souhaites avoir un emploi durant ta scolarité, Urgences-santé mentionne dans son offre que tu pourrais bien avoir l'option de travailler à temps partiel durant l'année scolaire si tu désires rester dans l'équipe.
Sache par contre que les disponibilités demandées sont plutôt particulières. Tu devras être disponible 24/7 et une fin de semaine sur deux pour une période de quatre mois. Tu seras placé.e sur une liste de rappel, aucun nombre d'heures de travail n'est garanti, mais dès ton inscription sur la liste tu as la chance d'accumuler de l'ancienneté.
Il te faudra aussi être disponible pour te déplacer aux trois centres d'Urgences-santé soit à Montréal, Laval et à Lasalle.
Préposé.e chez Urgences-santé
Salaire : entre 19,95 $ et 22,91 $
Compagnie : Urgences-santé
Applique ici