Margareta Dovgal: Eby can’t even run an election campaign, never mind a province

B.C. NDP Leader David Eby makes an announcement at the Victoria Curling Club, in Victoria on Oct. 5. Photo by ADRIAN LAM/TIMES COLONIST

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Nothing screams political opportunism like a snap election called to save a tired government that’s well past its best-before date. That’s exactly what Premier David Eby has handed British Columbia.

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No one should be surprised. Eby needs a distraction from his own record, so he has spent the opening weeks of this campaign blaming anyone but himself: U.S. President Donald Trump, developers, businessman Jim Pattison.

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But Eby’s disastrous record is hard to hide. After nine years of NDP government, nearly three in four B.C. businesses say they plan to cut investment because of the uncertainty the government has created, according to a May survey by the Business Council of B.C. Young, skilled British Columbians are leaving for other provinces at rates not seen in decades.

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B.C. has the resources the world wants, and this government has spent nine years treating the industries that produce them as a problem to be managed. A Statistics Canada report released last month revealed that employment in B.C.’s natural resource sector declined 17 per cent year-over-year. Few LNG projects have got off the ground. Mines wait years for permits. Every one of those lost projects cost British Columbians paycheques and tax revenue we could use right about now.

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And perhaps most astonishingly, after former premier John Horgan handed him a budget surplus, Eby is running a projected $13.8-billion deficit this year, the largest in B.C. history.

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A government asking for a fresh mandate owes voters fresh ideas. Instead, Eby has brought back the same tired bag of tricks, promising new tax hikes and ever-increasing spending.

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In the 2024 campaign, Eby was in another frantic scramble to win votes. He told British Columbians he’d save them money on food with a $1,000 grocery rebate, and then promptly went back on his word, blaming the province’s catastrophic fiscal situation of his own creation.

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Now he wants voters to take his word that he’ll make their life more affordable, when he’s done nothing but the opposite. I don’t think British Columbians will be so easily fooled.

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The Conservative Party of British Columbia, led by Lorne Doerkson, is ready to govern responsibly. Family budgets belong to families, that’s why we’ve promised to put $1,000 a year back in the pockets of working British Columbians. More than that, and our first commitment of this campaign was no new taxes. A Conservative government will grow the economy and leave more money in the pockets of British Columbians.

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We are also the only party running a candidate in all 93 ridings. I’m proud to be one of them.

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Eby picked the date of this election. He had the advantages of incumbency and advance notice, and the NDP still couldn’t field a full slate. Calling a cynical snap election and then failing to fill a slate of candidates is a perfect example of the chaos and irresponsibility that British Columbians have lived with for nine years. If the NDP can’t persuade 93 people to run under its banner, it shouldn’t expect to persuade the province.