B.C. NDP Leader David Eby's early election scheme has not gone entirely as he might have hoped, Robyn Urback writes.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
B.C. NDP Leader David Eby is a shrewd, confident competitor.
He will challenge anyone currently suffering from a stomach virus to a hot-dog-eating contest. He will dare any chess champion to a tournament when they are sleeping. Mr. Eby will tackle a bear in a cage (from the outside, without actually touching the bear), or wrestle any and all comatose patients in their beds. Had he been given the opportunity, I’m sure he would have even laced up his skates in the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships to compete against the compromised Nancy Kerrigan.
But Mr. Eby has a more important battle to fight at the moment. Yes, the trade war with the U.S. is primarily Prime Minister Mark Carney’s to fight, but Mr. Eby has the very important role of pretending he is a central figure – sort of like a younger child pressing buttons on an unplugged controller, while his older brother enjoys a single-player game in peace. Mr. Eby’s co-operation, his complacency, is very important.
And so, B.C.’s Premier had no choice but to call an election two years early, even though he already had a majority mandate from the electorate. He needs to make sure that he has permission from the people of British Columbia to press those disabled buttons, for a game he is not actually playing, while he can still say he is fighting a dragon. Because who knows where that dragon will be in two years’ time?
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During a press conference last week, Mr. Eby defended his decision to call an early election, saying “There is never a bad time to go to British Columbians to ask the right direction.” But the best time, of course, is when the opposition is without a permanent leader and consumed by infighting (and also when there is already a municipal election going on, and when a by-election was already scheduled for Abbotsford-Mission, which has now been cancelled). Anyway, as Mr. Eby said, this is an “existential moment” for the province, one where British Columbians are left to ponder such foundational questions as “what is the point of a fixed election date if the Premier can call a snap vote at a whim?” And also, “how stupid, exactly, does this guy think we all are?”
That said, it’s evident that this early election scheme has not gone entirely as Mr. Eby might have hoped. At the time of writing, four of his cabinet ministers have said they won’t be running for re-election in the upcoming vote. On the other side of the aisle, a handful of MLAs that defected from the B.C. Conservatives under the leadership of Kerry-Lynne Findlay, who resigned just two days before Mr. Eby called the election, have found their way back to the party. A poll by Angus Reid conducted just after the election call had the Conservatives leading the NDP by eight points, which is a reversal from the four-point lead the NDP had.
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Mr. Eby’s attack lines aren’t really landing either. His party has charged that British Columbians won’t know what leader they’re going to get if they vote for the Conservatives, which is currently being steered by interim leader Lorne Doerkson. But as the CBC’s Katie DeRosa put to Mr. Eby directly, it was his choice to throw the province into a campaign right now, before the B.C. Conservatives had time to elect a new leader. He has also tried to frame this election as his righteous battle against an opposition MLA who imagined the province to be an “American protectorate,” but Mr. Doerkson quickly neutered that narrative by repeatedly referring to U.S. President Donald Trump as a “bully,” and by accusing the governing NDP of failing to stand up to Mr. Trump effectively.
Mr. Eby, of course, has plenty of time to turn this all around (he is very good at turning things around, after all; he turned an operating surplus inherited from former NDP premier John Horgan into a projected $13.8-billion deficit). And another Premier, Ontario’s Doug Ford, was able to wring success from a similarly opportunistic election call (though the Ontario election was held before Mr. Carney became Prime Minister, when there was an absence of leadership in Ottawa, and so it was slightly more credible that a provincial election could be about standing up to Mr. Trump). Mr. Eby just needs time for the electorate to forget about the very cynical reason he called this election – and also about the state of the province’s books, and hospitals, and housing, and crime and addiction, and a few other niggling things. And then, surely, they will reward him for his brave, confident challenge. Those feverish, vomiting competitive eaters don’t stand a chance against this guy.