just another day at work a month away from the launch of the official election campaign Premier David eie is working the room in Oak Bay popping into coffee shops baby stores and meeting with volunteers alongside Diana Gibson the NDP candidate for Oak Bay Gordon Head eie BC conservative leader John rustad and BC United leader Kevin Falcon are all going into their first election as Party leaders Sonia first to know is going into her second election as head of the BC greens while recent opinion polls have the BC conservatives catching up to the NDP and even ahead by some measures E's party has a leg up with its campaign War chest the new Democrats lead the way on political donations they will get the largest subsidy from elections BC based on vote count from the 2020 election the party will receive just over 1.6 million BC United will get just over 1.1 million while the BC greens get just over 500,000 the BC conservatives will get just over $60,000 even with its fundraising Advantage the NDP also carries the weight of seven years in power and voter frustration is rampant over the cost of living house prices Health Care crime and social disorder to what extent is this election a referendum on BC uh NDP performance on these these uh files that there's a lot of frustration eie insists The Province would be worse off under John rustad people think things are challenging now well just wait till the cost that the conservatives are going to impose on them in the major turnaround from 2020 when they captured just 2% of the vote and no seats the BC conservatives have emerged as the main rival to the NDP it is uh definitely feeling like a Cinderella Story BC conservative campaign manager Angelo isidoro says the party has nominated 82 candidates so far in comparison the NDP have 78 candidates confirmed BC United has 57 and the greens have just 31 however rustads rush to handpick most of his preferred candidates for the 93 ridings has been Rocky some riding associations are frustrated that the leader is parachuting in some candidates who have few ties to the writings they also claim he's stacking the party with former BC United mlas and candidates including Richmond's Teresa watt a new website has popped up called fire John rad.com saying the party has grown from 500 members to about 9,000 under his leadership and so there may be a few people who are you know disgruntle about that I'm really not too worried about it BC United meanwhile is trying to rebound from losing several mlas and candidates to the BC conservatives its lead organizer says the party has already seen a Boost after promising a major tax cut no one's going to come close to our policy platform we continue to show that that's where we lead as for the BC green party there are concerns about its ability to keep its two seats in the legislature Adam Olen the MLA for sanage north and the islands is not running again and leader Sonia firsto is running in the NDP stronghold of Victoria Beacon Hill the greens campaign manager however says they will run a Full Slate of candidates but focus on six key writings where they think they can win Katie D roza CBC News Victoria