good evening thanks for joining us two veteran politicians are calling it quits a day after Kevin Falcon abruptly pulled BC United out of the election emotions remain raw for candidates who feel abandoned by their own party and some aren't keen on suddenly running under the BC conservative Banner cdv's Penny daflos joins us now Penny there's a wide range of emotions and definitely shock since party members weren't given any heads up that Kevin Falcon was close closing up the campaign oh yeah that's right Ming and while the official line is that BC United supporters should join the conservative uh bandwagon there's no guarantee um they say Falcon was uh not a team Builder people are telling me his leadership was one of the problems fundraising has dried up and now onetime supporters and Cent's voters are feeling left out in the cold two years after Kevin Falcon booted John rustad from his party he abandoned his dream to be Premier and threw his support behind the conservative leader on his very worst day John rustad would be a far better Premier than David Eevee on his very best day the move blindsided Falcon supporters and mlas I didn't leave my party my party left me they found out BC United was imploding when the public did despite standing by Falcon through a name change and dismal polls it's not the first time that you've seen a major party um be decimated uh there's probably a lot of reasons former cabinet minister and interim BC liberal leader Shirley bond is pulling out of the election Al together together so is Todd Stone but he's now backing his onetime rival the BC conservative caucus will need the right mix of experience and newood ultimately it was difficult to to maintain two right of Center parties there's little doubt that next week or two will be Rocky for the center right you can't have this kind of shotgun wedding between parties this close to an election and not uh have uh some Fallout from from that decision do you feel that this was an inevitable development uh no I wasn't sure how this would play out as rustad took a Victory lap with multiple media interviews there's considerable angst among center-right voters momentum is is everything in politics as it is in sports who want to reign in government spending while being Progressive socially you're describing me I mean I got into politics largely to make a difference on big issues like climate change I think when people see some of our policies come out additional policies come out I think those sort of people will see that you know we are a party that is across the Spectrum the NDP is already targeting rust ad with its first attack ad he's a career politician with a record of costing you more and even sharing old BC United Clips the party that has candidates that equate vaccinations with Nazism and aarti suggesting the ghost of Kevin Falcon will hover over this election even though he's now out of the picture now it may very well be the case that opinion polls have been over representing support for conservatives or that dis illusion United voters will just stay home election season will really kick into gear after Labor Day M Jang yeah a lot still to unpack in the days ahead okay thank you penny