Vaughn Palmer: B.C. premier David Eby has learned he is not in charge

Premier David Eby at the Vaisakhi Day parade in Surrey on Saturday, April 18, 2026. Photo by Government of British Columbia

Article content

VICTORIA — A beaten Premier David Eby met with reporters at the legislature Monday afternoon following his latest backdown to threats from the province’s Indigenous leaders.

Article content

He started by reading a joint statement describing how the government had abandoned every detail of his plan to revise DRIPA, the Declaration Act that makes every B.C. law subject to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Article content

Article content

Article content

In return for Eby agreeing to leave DRIPA as is, the Indigenous leaders agreed to “work together on a path forward to discuss and consider the government’s stated concerns.”

Article content

Article content

Work together? On a path? To discuss and consider? That’s some trade off. The premier gave up everything, the Indigenous leaders merely agreed to talk.

Article content

One wag joked afterward that Eby reminded him of a guy emerging from a hostage-taking and reading a statement prepared by his captors.

Article content

Pressed, the premier half-acknowledged the backdown.

Article content

“It is possible to move off confidently in the wrong direction,” he conceded.

Article content

That David Eby is increasingly familiar to British Columbians.

Article content

The premier who defended decriminalization and safer supply until he abandoned both. The premier who branded critics of the carbon tax as climate change deniers until he repealed it.

Article content

It seems Eby is never more confident than when heading off in the wrong direction.

Article content

“I would like to have been right the first time,” he said.

Article content

How about the second, third, fourth or fifth time? For he has changed direction on this issue a half dozen times at least.

Article content

Article content

After a Court of Appeal decisions that the Declaration Act had an immediate effect on all other provincial laws, Eby said the legislation had to be amended. Then suspended. Then, nothing.

Article content

Article content

His position was non-negotiable. Then it was entirely open to negotiation — indeed, abject surrender. It would be a confidence motion until it wasn’t.

Article content

He had the votes to get it through, then one MLA defected and the math changed.

Article content

On Monday, he went back to claiming he still had the votes.

Article content

But his rah-rah defence of the backdown during question period did not provoke a spontaneous outpouring of affection from the NDP benches.

Article content

While others indulged in perfunctory applause, I was struck by the sight of former solicitor general Garry Begg, who Eby dumped from cabinet this time last year. He sat with his hands jammed into his armpits, making a show of not making a show of support for Eby.

Article content

Early Sunday afternoon, Eby was still preparing to introduce legislation to suspend the Declaration Act. When he abandoned the plan late Sunday afternoon, one NDP cabinet minister got the news from a reporter.