Geoff Russ: David Eby ditches nationalism for the hammer and sickle

BC NDP leader and Premier David Eby makes an election speech in Surrey, BC Wednesday, September 23, 2026. Photo by Jason Payne /PNG

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In British Columbia, it appears that New Democrat Premier David Eby has found another figure to impersonate after his Mark Carney impression flopped.

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Now, Eby is auditioning for another four years as premier by pretending to be a hybrid of former NDP premier Glen Clark and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. It is unfortunate that the costumes don’t fit, and not only because the premier is built like a giraffe.

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As part of his Clark-Mamdani act, Eby is playing the part of a class warrior who will relentlessly take the fight to big grocery and big oil. His NDP government is promising a steep tax hike on incomes above $1 million, and price controls on essential groceries and fuel. These are the campaign’s early days. He had already pledged an extra tax on newly built condos that remain unsold and empty for a year.

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All of this could have been done had the premier not called a snap election. He still had a majority in the legislature, and the small Green party caucus would likely back his hard-left promises.

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The reason this class-warrior charade is occurring now is that the NDP campaign has been in a state of emergency. When Eby tried to capitalize on a divided and bickering B.C. Conservative opposition under Kerry-Lynne Findlay, he was going to portray Findlay as a surrogate for President Donald Trump. It had not helped that Findlay had filled her office with operators from Alberta’s separatist, so-called  “Republican Party.”

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“Build BC Strong” was to be the NDP’s campaign slogan, a copy-and-paste edit of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s 2025 “Canada Strong” campaign slogan. So blatant was the imitation that the recycling bin could have billed for expenses.

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In any case, the rapid removal and replacement of Findlay with Lorne Doerkson transformed the snap election from a wipeout into a horse race. According to polls, the Conservatives are either ahead of or even with the NDP, running on a big-tent, mainstream conservative platform that focuses on pocketbook issues and other salient matters, such as strengthened firefighting capabilities.

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It was a spectacular turnaround in which the opportunistic Eby found himself ambushed by his own snap election.

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Unlike Carney, who successfully marketed himself as a real change from Justin Trudeau, Eby cannot pretend to be anyone other than himself.

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In an effort to pull even with the Conservatives, Eby has ditched the flag and raised the hammer and sickle, and it may yet work. At its heart, B.C. has been a populist province since long before Donald Trump turned “populism” into a loaded term.

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Thirty years ago, another NDP premier made a surprise comeback to rescue his troubled government during an election. Glen Clark won a shocking majority for a beleaguered NDP government with a genuine labour-populist campaign, pledging household relief and specifically attacking the wealthy and the corporate sector. It was an energetic, feisty campaign that hinged on splitting the non-left vote, which eerily echoes today in One B.C. and Centre B.C., two minor parties that broke away from the B.C. Conservative coalition.