The BC College of Family Physicians has issued its report card on the election platforms of the province's three main political parties, and it gives the highest marks to New Democrat proposals. The NDP, Liberal and Green platforms could receive a maximum of 10 points on each of four issues, access to a family doctor, Indigenous health, pandemic readiness and the overdose crisis. Liberals scored six out of ten on all four questions, the Greens received a perfect ten on proposals to handle the overdose crisis, eight for access to a family doctor and Indigenous health but only two out of 10 for

New Democrat Leader John Horgan is campaigning in ridings traditionally held by the B.C. Liberals in the waning days of the provincial election. Horgan says people are seeing the NDP differently after the past 3 1/2 years in government because the party has shown it can balance the books and spur economic growth. Horgan was campaigning in Langley and was later scheduled to visit Abbotsford, areas where the Liberals have done well in the past. The NDP has also made a push in Green Leader Sonia Furstenau's Cowichan Valley riding, where federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh recently visited. In her ri

A woman is dead and a man and two-year-old child were injured in a stabbing Tuesday night in Surrey, B.C. A statement from Surrey RCMP says the victims were attacked at about 9 p.m. in a home in the Newton neighbourhood. Police say a suspect was in custody. The woman was still alive when police arrived and the man and toddler were seriously hurt. All three were rushed to hospital where the woman was pronounced dead, but police say the other two were recovering. The suspect was located near the home.

The Oceanside RCMP detachment on Vancouver Island says charges have been laid following a ``lengthy and complex'' investigation into a fatal hit-and-run more than a year ago. A statement from the detachment says 35 year old Ryan Grob has been charged with several counts including dangerous driving causing death and impaired driving, while 31 year old Travis Taylor has been charged with one count of obstruction of justice. Police allege Grob was driving and Taylor was a passenger when a 32 year old man was hit and killed while crossing a Parksville street in August of last year. Court document

The BC Coroners Service says 127 people fatally overdosed on illicit drugs in September, up from 60 deaths during the same period last year. It says an average of four people died every day in September, but the number of fatalities declined from 150 in August and is lower than the record number of 183 in June. The service says 70 per cent of the fatalities this year have been among those aged 30 to 59 and most of the dead have been men. Fatal overdoses began declining in B.C. at the beginning of the year, with 79 fatalities recorded in January, but started rising in March as the COVID-19 pan

B.C.'s political leaders are campaigning in Metro Vancouver in the final few days of the provincial election. B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson defended a news release put out by his party that accused the NDP of trying to suppress the vote by calling an election during a pandemic. Speaking at a dairy farm in Surrey, Wilkinson says NDP Leader John Horgan's ``selfishness'' in calling an early election as the province hit a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic shouldn't override the public's right to get out and vote. Horgan took his campaign to Coquitlam, where he pushed his health-care pla

British Columbia is reporting 499 cases of COVID-19 detected over three days between Friday and Monday. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says B.C. is in the midst of a second wave, but it's still not recording new infections at the same rate as other provinces. She is once again reminding people that they can help control the trajectory of the outbreak by keeping social interactions low so schools and scheduled surgeries can continue. She adds that the number of people in hospital with the illness in B.C. has stabilized and sits at 67 people among 1,639 active cases. Two more people

B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan voted this morning in an advance poll in his suburban Victoria riding to start the last Monday of the 28 day provincial election campaign. Horgan then travelled to Saanich for an announcement, while BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson was at work on the Lower Mainland, promising highway and health care improvements during campaigning in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. Wilkinson also slammed New Democrat policies on drug addiction, accusing the Horgan government of only addressing harm reduction, at the expense of prevention, treatment or enforcement. BC Green party Le

RCMP in Coquitlam, Surrey and Burnaby have joined forces to make arrests after they say suspects literally tunnelled into businesses to commit crimes. An RCMP statement says pooling resources and sharing information between agencies helped identify similarities that eventually led to two suspects. A 43 year old man is facing charges including eight counts of break and enter while a 39 year old woman is accused of two counts of the same offence. Police began investigating in early September following numerous reports from several cities about crooks breaking through the walls of adjoining busi