British Columbia will be critical in choosing the next federal government, according to incumbent Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP and NDP candidate Nathan Cullen.
"It's mostly about numbers," said Cullen who served as the NDP's House leader and finance critic during the 41st Parliament.
So far, Cullen is up against Liberal Brad Layton and Conservative Tyler Nesbitt for the Skeena-Bulkley Valley seat.
When the House of Commons reconvenes, there will be 42 representatives from B.C., six more than before thanks to election boundaries getting redrawn. That's still a far cry from the 121 seats held by Ontario and 78 seats allotted to Quebec.
"There isn't really a strategy for any of the main parties to form government that doesn't go through British Columbia. B.C. is critical for everybody for various reasons," said Cullen, acknowledging that the NDP are currently polling as frontrunners in the country's westernmost province.
"You really don't see anybody shaping up strong enough in other regions to not be able to also be strong in B.C. and hope to form government."
That helps put issues of importance in B.C. on a national scale, Cullen said, including pipelines and First Nations relations.
"We (the NDP) feel well positioned on most of those big questions and it's the reason that I've spent so much time travelling around British Columbia over the last few years, was that I believed a lot of these seats and a lot of these conversations were going to be nationally significant come the election and some of that really seems to be coming true in the most recent weeks."
On Thursday, leaders for the Green, Liberal and New Democrat parties were all in B.C. and Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scheduled for an event on Vancouver Island this evening. But Cullen said he wasn't sure if NDP leader Tom Mulcair would be making an appearance in central and northern B.C. during the campaign.
"I've always felt that incumbents should do their best to take care of home. But I would certainly welcome it," Cullen said.
"I don't think it's planned right now but things could change and certainly we would be ready for it."
Getting the national campaign crew into his riding is a technical challenge, Cullen said, given the planes are generally larger than the regional airports can handle and weather can be hit-or-miss.
"We had Jack (Layton) come up, or try to come up, one year and fly around Prince Rupert for a couple of hours basically and take the entire national media back down south (because they couldn't land)," Cullen said. "It was disappointing and campaigns are wary of that and that's true for every party, I'm sure."
