Politics is a dirty business, but seldom do we see the most basic norms of gentlemanly conduct violated so flagrantly as David Eby’s decision to wait until his opponents descended into chaos and turmoil to trigger an election — and then to brazenly claim that he had to do so because of President Donald Trump.The BC NDP has a majority in the Legislature and is not even two years into its mandate, having been elected last in October 2024. The next election was scheduled for October 2028. Why do we need one right now?In his Tuesday press conference outside Government House in Victoria after having requested that the Lieutenant Governor dissolve the Legislature, David Eby gave British Columbians the answer to this question: Trump, Trump, Trump.Eby claimed that because we are in an “existential moment” characterized by an ever-shifting array of tariffs and trade tensions, his government needs a fresh mandate to “make sure British Columbians and our province are ready for whatever comes next” by implementing a three-point plan: “Stand up. Protect. Build.” He darkly insinuated that his opponents on the right “want to turn British Columbia into America Junior.”Now there is nothing wrong with dramatic political rhetoric. The role of politicians is to present competing narratives for voters to dispense judgement on. The sordid greasiness of this whole affair lies in the fact that Eby’s high-flying rhetoric has nothing to do with the reason he called the election. He knows it, we know it, and he knows we know it. The major escalation in the Canada-US trade war that Eby referred to in his Tuesday press conference took place in late August when Canada exited bilateral trade negotiations, triggering a round of tariffs and counter-tariffs. Why did Eby not call an election then?It is widely understood that David Eby waited until the turmoil in the BC Conservative ranks, which has been documented in some detail in another piece in the Western Standard, had reached fever pitch. .After months of departures by Conservative MLAs amid an ugly internal party battle filled with drama, gossip, allegations, and counter-allegations, former BC Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay stepped down on Sunday after a little over 100 days on the job.The BC Conservatives are a bruised and battered party. Their new interim leader, Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson, is relatively unknown in much of the province and has only 1,600 followers on X as of the time of writing.Rather than taking the high road and waiting for the BC Conservatives to elect a new leader, Eby has moved to strike them while they are down. The BC NDP’s preferred fighting style is an ambush in a dark alley instead of a right royal joust in broad daylight.Lately, Eby has put woke ideology on the back burner and taken on the brand-new persona of a fiery Canadian nationalist, going so far as to don red plaid at a rally in Victoria Harbour. The irony is that the cynicism and farce of waiting until the opposition has no elected leader to call an election embodies US politics at its very dirtiest.As if matters could not get any worse, BC’s provincial election campaign will overlap with local government election campaigns. British Columbians will vote for their local governments on October 17, and Eby’s provincial election is set a week later on October 24.As election rumours swirled last week, Union of BC Municipalities President Cori Ramsay sounded the alarm bells: “At a time when BC is facing considerable economic and social uncertainty, overlapping elections would be a disservice to our citizens.”The BC NDP refused to heed such concerns because doing so would have prevented them from carrying out one of the sleaziest, least gentlemanly plots in modern Canadian politics. It remains to be seen if British Columbians will rebuke Eby’s cynical attempt to stay in power at all costs.
