B.C. Election: Barring recount upsets, expect an NDP government with tacit Green support

Vaughn Palmer: Despite a terrible outing by Premier David Eby, the 'H' word did not cross his lips

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Published Oct 21, 2024  •  4 minute read

B.C. NDP Leader David Eby addresses supporters on election night in Vancouver, on Saturday, October 19, 2024. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /THE CANADIAN PRESS

VICTORIA — David Eby had little cause for boasting over the results from his first election as party leader and premier.

Gone was the hefty legislative majority he inherited from John Horgan. Gone with it, five cabinet ministers and 11 NDP backbenchers.

The New Democrats had been driven to the brink by a party that barely existed when Eby moved into the premier’s office two years ago.

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Eby was almost bested by a leader, John Rustad, for whom he displayed nothing but contempt.

Still, Eby claimed to see cause for celebration.

“There was a clear majority for progressive values,” he told supporters Saturday night. “And I take comfort from that. I take a lot of comfort from that.”

By Sunday, he’d laid claim to what amounted to a double victory for the NDP.

“The B.C. NDP team won the most votes, and we hold the most seats.”

However, he added, somewhat grudgingly, “We did not secure a majority government.”

Details, details.

The statement was an uncanny echo of what Christy Clark said when she finished short of a majority in 2017.

“Tonight, we won the popular vote, and we have also won the most seats.”

But Eby was already angling to remain in power with the support of the Greens, something that eluded Clark seven years ago.

Saturday night, he praised Green leader Sonia Furstenau, even as he quietly celebrated the success of the NDP hit job on her candidacy against cabinet minister Grace Lore in Victoria.

“I spoke with Sonia Furstenau and congratulated her,” Eby told the partisan crowd.

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“She ran a strong and principled campaign. I’m grateful for that and there are many values that we share in common with the Green party. I am committed to working with them on our common vision.”

Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau with supporters after losing the Victoria-Beacon Hill MLA seat at the Delta Hotels Victoria Ocean Pointe Resort in Victoria on Oct. 19, 2024. Photo by DARREN STONE /TIMES COLONIST

By the following day, the New Democrats were circulating the list of a dozen or so ridings where their vote, if combined with that of the Greens, would have kept the Conservatives at bay.

Those Green votes were cast in outright defiance of the NDP campaign message that said a vote for Furstenau was a vote for the forces of darkness in the person of John Rustad.

Yet Furstenau, when conceding her defeat, reinforced the impression that there was not the slightest chance of her party working with Rustad, so long as she remains leader.

During the campaign, she launched a rare-for-her personal attack on the Conservative leader, branding him a relic of the 1950s.

On election night she added his party and his voters to her expression of contempt.

“It is a strange time in politics when during an atmospheric river, people come out and vote for a party that’s denying the reality of climate change,” she told Green supporters. “But hey, this is where we’re at.”

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Barring the unlikely scenario of the Conservatives flipping enough seats to give them an outright majority, I expect Eby, and the New Democrats will remain in office with at least the tacit support of the Greens.

Already there’s talk of a scenario where Eby prolongs his stay in office until a change of government at the federal level.

The New Democrats could then capitalize on the anticipated backlash against the Pierre Poilèvre-led Conservative government.

If that seems premature, if not downright presumptuous, it is entirely in keeping with the tone set by Eby after the NDP’s near defeat.

Premiers and party leaders who blunder the way Eby did this year are usually more apologetic.

Even the enormously self-confident premier Glen Clark managed a show of contrition in 1996, when he lost the popular vote while narrowly winning the seat count.

He said he was “humbled by the result.” (“He’ll get over it,” I predicted — and he did.)

The “H” word did not pass Eby’s lips on the weekend. His admissions of error are as rare as a thorough candidate screening by the B.C. Conservative party.

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NDP leader David Eby and his wife, Cailey Lynch, leave the stage after speaking to supporters at NDP party headquarters in Vancouver on Oct., 19, 2024. Photo by RICHARD LAM /PNG

The closest Eby came to an expression of regret was a grudging acknowledgment that John Rustad “spoke to the frustrations of British Columbians” and a vow that the NDP “has got to do better and we will do better.”

He took no personal responsibility for the failure of leadership.

Instead, after presiding over one of the more divisive campaigns in provincial history, he promised to be “the premier the province deserves — a premier to bring B.C. together.”

For a moment there, it sounded as if he had already jumped ahead into his next term: Once those pesky details, like recounts and the call from the lieutenant-governor to form a government, are cleared out of the way.

There’s talk that in the next term, presuming there is one, Eby will be less centralized, more into delegating. More conciliatory, less given to nasty attacks and expressions of moral superiority toward those who disagree with him.

He might even clean out the platoon of special advisers in his office, given the underwhelming results from their hefty salaries.

But given the lack of contrition he has displayed to date over the election, believe it when you see it.

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