Concerns over pre-election polarization amid online barbs in B.C.

The B.C. New Democrats and B.C. Conservative Party are trading increasingly sharp attacks on social issues that some believe are akin to U.S.-style culture wars.

Premier David Eby has attacked the B.C. Conservatives over abortion, race and gender identity, while the Conservatives have been critical of Eby and the "radical NDP," claiming the government is trying to distract from its own failed policies on public safety and affordability.

A B.C. Green MLA, meanwhile, says the attacks divert attention from complex issues affecting the lives of British Columbians.

Eby held a press conference in Victoria on Tuesday to tout the NDP's progress on women's reproductive issues, including free birth control and in-vitro fertilization funding. 

Even though the B.C. Conservatives haven't mentioned abortion in their platform, Eby accused party leader John Rustad of trying to erode those rights. 

"It's fairly safe to say that if he is, at best, ambivalent about reproductive freedom and, at worst, hostile to it, that women's access to abortion, that women's access to free birth control is on the ballot this election, just like it is in the United States," Eby said Tuesday. 

Rustad declined to speak with CBC News, but wrote on social media that "under a B.C. Conservative government, access to abortion, contraception and other items will remain exactly as it is now."

Eby has accused the B.C. Conservatives of welcoming candidates who are anti-abortion and have offensive views on the 2SLGBTQ+ community and Indigenous people.

"The candidates put forward by the B.C. Conservatives are advancing a hateful agenda," he said.

Bryan Breguet, the Conservative candidate for Vancouver-Langara, is one candidate that is facing scrutiny for social media activity.

"Indigenous people having a higher incarceration rate doesn't necessarily mean there are systemic biases against them in the justice system. They could just, you know, commit more crimes. Like Black people in the US," he wrote in a social media post from 2020.

Breguet said he was not able to do an interview with CBC News. 

However, he explained himself in a video posted to social media where he spoke with Conservative candidate for North Coast-Haida Gwaii Chris Sankey, who is Indigenous and says he is from the Tsimshian community.

"This tweet is, like, four years old ... my intention wasn't to be racist or offensive," Breguet said in the video, adding that the "woke left" doesn't care about the underlying issues affecting Black and Indigenous people.