Neil Malik
The B.C. election kicked off with two very different arguments
The B.C. election kicked off with two very different arguments
Image: Elections BC, Facebook
The Topline
- B.C. Premier David Eby called a snap provincial election on Tuesday, just two years into a four-year term
- The provincial election voting day now falls on Oct. 24, just one week after voting day for the province’s municipal elections, which take place on a fixed day every four years
- Some mayoral and council candidates from across the province were irritated by Eby’s decision, with Vancouver mayoral candidate Ken Sim suggesting Eby “does not respect” the local municipal election process
- A poll from the Angus Reid Institute released two days after the election call suggests the Conservatives have jumped out to a commanding – but early – eight-point lead in vote intention over the NDP
- The election comes at a time when 11 Conservative MLAs had left the party over 16 weeks, and three more were fired; however, most of those candidates quickly returned to run under the Conservative banner following the departure of Kerry-Lynne Findlay as party leader
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Switch sides,
back and forth
The NDP will fight back against Donald Trump
David Eby's message to voters: Trump has changed the game.
In order to defend the province against Washington’s economic war on B.C., Eby is asking for a fresh four-year mandate with a few more seats in hand.
It’s true the NDP already had a majority — but just barely. A one-seat majority at 47 out of 93 seats is the absolute bare minimum a party needs for a majority government. It leaves the NDP in a bind if even one MLA happened to be OOO during any vote in the B.C. Legislature.
For a province trying to respond to tariffs, protect jobs, and make long-term economic decisions, that’s just not workable.
That’s why Eby’s campaign message is basically this: B.C. is entering a more dangerous economic period, and the province needs a stronger, more stable government to deal with it.
Since Trump’s tariffs and other economic threats have put major B.C. industries at risk, Eby says the answer is to attract global investment, build infrastructure, diversify trade, and work with Ottawa on major projects. He wants to build a new provincial economy for the future.
Eby told CKNW’s Simi Sara on Wednesday that international investors who attended Mark Carney’s recent investment conference in Toronto are specifically looking for stable alternatives to the United States, and he believes B.C. has a chance to seize that opportunity. A sizable vote for the NDP is a signal to those investors our province is rock solid — at least politically.
And so, that’s ultimately Eby’s justification for calling an early election: he wants a bigger majority and a fresh mandate to carry out his plan.
There’s one other — very obvious — reason for calling the election now. The Conservatives represent nothing but chaos. If they can’t govern themselves, how can they govern the province? Voters now have a chance to essentially wipe them out.
Throughout the campaign, we are guaranteed to hear NDP candidates around the province describe the Conservative Party as divided, unstable, and a group of misfits that will bring Trump’s MAGA-style politics north of the border.
The evidence is there. Four different leaders over two years, caucus defections, and internal fighting are all signs that the Conservatives are anything but cohesive.
That’s why at this early stage of the campaign, it sounds like the NDP wants voters to think about “stability” when they are standing at the ballot box.
Economic stability in the face of Trump. And political stability at home.
The NDP's track record speaks for itself
The NDP is running against a party that was in chaos. But that chaos had a name — Kerry-Lynne Findlay, and she’s gone now.
Lorne Doerkson is the Conservative Party’s new interim leader and his campaign message starts from a very different place.
Forget Eby’s warnings about what might happen to B.C. if the Conservative Party forms government. This province has enough of its own problems thanks to Eby.
Doerkson’s message is straightforward. After nine years of NDP rule, British Columbians are dealing with hospital closures, strained infrastructure, crime and street disorder, a shortage of long-term care beds, and a record deficit.
In spite of all that, Eby has chosen to call an election less than two years into a four-year mandate. The 2024 provincial election cost $82.4 million. That’s roughly the same cost as building two new elementary schools.
If the premier already has a majority and a plan, he should simply get on with governing. But he’d rather waste the time of voters, spend more tax dollars, and bulldoze over the province’s municipal election process, which happens to be running at the exact same time.
So when Eby warns that the Conservatives would bring “chaos,” Doerkson’s response is basically: take a look around.
Can you get health care when you need it? Can you afford your taxes? Do you feel safe in your community?
Doerkson is a first-time party leader and largely unknown to British Columbians, but colleagues describe him as honest, straightforward, and down to earth. He was first elected an MLA in 2020 under the B.C. Liberal banner.
He’ll either be the party’s biggest weakness, or its biggest strength.
But at least under his watch, Conservatives are pitching themselves as a serious alternative to what’s been nine years of social disorder in communities, a record-setting budget deficit, and a suffocating high cost of living under the NDP.
On Donald Trump, Doerkson called him a “bully” and said under his watch, the U.S. liquor ban stays in place.
Peter Milobar, who rejoined the Conservatives on Tuesday after quitting the party, says he's returned to a “progressive-ideas, conservative-values” party.
Sounds like the Conservatives want voters to know that the party’s recent dysfunction was caused by the wrong leader — and that problem has now been removed.
Now, thanks to Eby, voters have an unexpected opportunity: Take advantage of the early election call and remove the bigger problem — the NDP.
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