Are the B.C. Conservatives the Reform Party of 20 years ago?

For B.C. Conservative leader John Cummins, this must be like deja vu.

Almost 20 years ago, Cummins was part of the upstart Reform Party - a rag-tag group of very right-leaning Westerners who were hell-bent on 'conservative-izing' Ottawa and in the process, destroy the federal PCs.

Today, as leader of the upstart B.C. Conservatives, Cummins hopes to 'conservative-ize' Victoria and destroy the governing B.C. Liberals. His first chance to do that comes Thursday, with two by-elections.

"I think that we will do well in both of those ridings," he told Yahoo! Canada News on Wednesday.

"Winning will certainly be icing on the cake but I don't this its necessary to show that our party has grown considerably and is finding favour with the public."

Both ridings - Port Moody Westwood and Chilliwack Hope - have traditionally been "gimmes" for the B.C. Liberals.

But the Liberals, who are technically a coalition of federal Liberals and Tories, are tanking in the polls, opening the door for the Conservatives who haven't elected a MLA in 34 years.

Akin to the early Reform Party days, however, analysts and pundits are warning of a right-of-centre vote split which would allow the NDP to win (a la Jean Chretien in 1993, 1997, and 2000).

Cummins dismisses the notion of a vote split and shuns any idea of a merger between his party and the Liberals before a May 2013 general election.

"The Liberals are a discredited bunch. There is simply nothing there to merge with." he said.

"Support for the Liberals is falling away. Folks are leaving that ship and they're looking for another vessel to carry them."

"And the fact of the matter is even if we weren't in the play it's my firm belief that the Liberals would lose this upcoming election."

And about those comparisons to the Reform Party?

Cummins, 70, admits there are some similarities and obviously hopes for the same end result.

For his sake, however, hopefully it doesn't take as long.