FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2026 — Rumours of efforts to revive the zombie BC United, or rebuild the former BC Liberal coalition, or launch a provincial version of the federal Liberal Party are spreading like fungus.
While appealing to some who yearn for those rose-coloured glory days, they all face the same fundamental problem: they are attempts to recreate what has already failed.
BC United / BC Liberals did not collapse because of unfortunate circumstances or poor timing.
The reality is the coalition that once united free-market conservatives, fiscal moderates, social liberals, and pragmatic centrists had already fractured long before the party was killed.
For decades, the party’s strength came from its ability to bring together people with different perspectives around a shared commitment to effective government and economic opportunity. But over time, large portions of that coalition no longer felt represented. Conservatives felt pushed aside. Moderates felt ignored. Internal ideological battles increasingly replaced the broad-based coalition-building that once made the party successful.
A ‘big tent’ party that starts excluding significant parts of its own coalition is the walking dead.
The challenge was never simply the name. The challenge was trust.
Political brands only have value when voters believe they stand for something consistent and credible. Reintroducing a familiar logo, restoring a former name or trying to ride the coat tails of a successful federal leader does not address the reasons many supporters left in the first place. For countless British Columbians, the old coalition broke apart because it no longer reflected the broad, pragmatic, political home they once supported.
A provincial Liberal Party faces different challenges but arrives in the same catatonic state.
Building a provincial Liberal Party from scratch would require recruiting candidates, establishing riding associations, raising funds, creating policy, and earning public trust across the province. It would have to overcome the reality that many voters would simply view it as another version of a political project that has already failed to unite the centre.
Most importantly, neither approach solves the biggest problem facing moderate voters today: fragmentation.
British Columbia does not need three or four parties competing for the same pool of centrist, moderate, and pragmatic voters. Every new party launched in the political centre divides volunteers, donors, candidates, and supporters who already share many of the same values. The result is not a stronger alternative. It is a weaker one.
Splitting the centre into multiple competing organizations virtually guarantees that none will achieve the scale necessary to form government.
Meanwhile, British Columbians are looking for solutions to real problems. Housing affordability. Health care access. Economic growth. Public safety. Infrastructure. Cost-of-living pressures. Voters are increasingly frustrated by ideological politics and increasingly interested in practical solutions.
That is precisely why CentreBC was created.
Not to recreate yesterday’s political battles or revive brands whose time has passed, but to build a modern political home for British Columbians who believe government should be practical, evidence-based, fiscally responsible, socially inclusive, and focused on outcomes rather than ideology.
Unlike efforts to resurrect old parties or import federal brands, CentreBC is already doing the work. We are building riding associations across the province. We have recruited members in communities large and small. We are developing policy grounded in evidence rather than political tribalism.
Most importantly, we have brought together people from different political backgrounds who share a common belief that British Columbia deserves better than endless polarization.
The political centre does not need another restart, rebranding exercise or the resurrection of zombie parties long dead. It needs a credible, growing movement that is focused on the future rather than the past.
That movement already exists and it is called CentreBC.
