Kelowna-Mission MLA Renee Merrifield is brimming with pride as she enters the final few days of the campaign to select the next leader of the B.C. Liberal Party.
Merrifield, who was elected to the legislature for the first time just 15 months ago, is one of seven candidates vying to lead into the next provincial election in 2024.
The successor to Andrew Wilkinson, who stepped down following the previous election, will be determined through a ranked ballot this Saturday.
"It's going to be amazing. I am so excited for Saturday I really am...one because this race has literally gone more than a year and it will be done, but second, because I left it all on the mat," Merrifield told Castanet News this week.
"Me and my team can be proud of what we've accomplished, proud of how we've had to pivot, pivot, and pivot again during the course of this campaign. Are there things we would do differently, absolutely there are. But Saturday is a real celebration."
Merrifield believes much of that celebration is a credit to the party and its diversity.
She points to the fact there are seven candidates who want the job, and who represent a wide spectrum of the party.
"The fact we have an Indigenous man, we have an Asian man, the fact we have a woman, the fact we have someone in their thirties, we have a couple in their forties, we have a couple in their fifties and sixties speaks volumes. It speaks volumes for a party who craves diversity, who craves inclusion, who a different way forward, who craves charisma and passion."
Merrifield has been painted throughout much of the campaign as the right-wing candidate and, despite comments recently supporting the trucker convoy and asking for an end to lock downs and mandates which have drawn criticism is some party circles, believes the right-wing label is unfair.
It couldn't be further from the truth, she contends.
"If you look at what I put out to the constituents and to members of the B.C. Liberals, I speak about childcare, I speak about healthcare, I speak about education, I speak about our environment and how important our environment is, I speak about the soft aspects of our social infrastructure. Those are not typically far right aspects, and I would never consider myself to be far right. I simply am not."
Merrifield believes her opponents have tried to paint her with that brush.
She considers herself a centrist, with her heart on the left and her pocketbook on the right.
As for her criticism of the governments handling of the pandemic in recent months, Merrifield has not been shy to say the time for lockdowns, mandates and passports is over.
"What I am calling out right now is we are using lockdowns and mandates that are some of the strictest and most severe of all of the tools in the toolbox, rather than rapid testing, rather than ventilation upgrades, rather than an increased capacity within our healthcare system,"said Merrifield.
"People believe if they are in and amongst all double and triple vaccinated individuals, that they won't have Omicron. That's simply not true. My entire family had Omicron over the Christmas break, and we are all double and triple vaccinated.
"By using passports, we're giving a false sense of security, and we need other tools because the job has changed."
Regardless of the outcome Saturday, Merrifield says she is committed to the party, the province and all British Columbians.
In order to believe in diversity and inclusion, she says you have to believe in the voices that vote for their leader.
She also cautions the rhetoric that the race is still Kevin Falcon's to lose.
"It's a ranked ballot," she says, "and history has shown us with a ranked ballot, the quote unquote front runner rarely wins."
