It is the curse of conservative politicians that they come to office only after the preceding government has made such an irretrievable bollocks of everything that even people who never read the news will recognize that something is wrong. Only then do they look for a conservative saviour. Trouble is, they then expect the new conservative rescuers to have every ill accumulated in ten years resolved in as many months and, by the way, at no cost or inconvenience to themselves.Thus, even as we congratulate incoming BC Conservative Premier and sometime rodeo star Lorne Doerkson on the stunning upset he has orchestrated on very short notice — a mere five weeks as leader — we shudder on his behalf. BC has no money, and its debts are mounting, and, far worse, the NDP has cultivated an unaffordable culture of entitlement.Free drugs for addicts? Could it get any worse? Actually, yes, it could and did, especially behind the veil of finance behind which the average citizen seldom peeks.When David Eby became premier in late 2022, he inherited a surplus from retiring premier John Horgan. Yet, within a few years, the province moved to multi-year deficits of roughly $13-$14 billion (the largest shortfalls in 30 years). As a result, taxpayer-supported debt is now projected to rise to more than triple what it was when Mr. Eby took office, and BC’s net debt-to-GDP ratio has roughly doubled. The province has faced multiple credit rating downgrades.If BC were a family, not a political entity, it would be in debt crisis counselling.All this comes with raised expectations among BC’s indigenous peoples — arguably the most enduring problem of them all and the one least discussed..On the latter, a little background. In 2019, the BC NDP passed Bill 41, which applied the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act directly to BC law. It stipulated that “every Act and regulation [of the BC government] must be construed as being consistent with” the Declaration.It was all part of a symbolic and — it must be admitted — somewhat sentimental gesture towards “reconciliation,” the full implications of which were not considered ahead of time.It was Mr. Eby’s misfortune that later court decisions treated the legislation not as an aspirational declaration of goodwill, but as creating enforceable obligations. In 2025-26 he proposed amendments or a temporary suspension to restore clarity and reduce legal uncertainty, but backed away under pressure from First Nations leadership and parts of his own caucus.To their credit, the BC Conservatives, by contrast, campaigned on repealing BC legislation supporting the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. However, even if they have the stomach for the inevitable cries of racism from self-hating white liberals, not to mention further “pressure” — which, to their credit, I suspect they do — it is not within their power to address either of the most contentious land issues clouding property ownership in BC. Those would be the 2025 Cowichan decision and the 2026 Musqueam Agreement. But one is in the courts and not amenable to legislative intervention. The other is a decision by the Government of Canada to recognize Aboriginal ownership of most of Vancouver. Again, there’s not much the BC government can do going nose-to-nose with Ottawa.Nevertheless, if Doerkson is successful in repealing Bill 41, he will have sent a reassuring signal to those who voted for him.He has also promised an immediate independent financial review, no new taxes, and a personal income tax cut (raising the basic exemption so that roughly $1,000 returns to most working people). Delivering the tax cut and other platform commitments while shrinking the deficit will require either strong revenue growth from resource projects or significant spending restraint — both of which carry political risks of their own..That is, key NDP-era frameworks remain in place and remain in the hands of the civil servants who put them together. In other words, quite apart from indigenous considerations, it will take time to purge the NDP’s climate policies, its permitting regimes, and the rules it established to slow down development in forestry and mining. Regulatory inertia, court challenges, and activist opposition will slow progress. Major infrastructure and energy projects (including support for the Pacific Link pipeline in coordination with Alberta and the federal government) face permitting, financing, and intergovernmental hurdles.Yet, accelerating resource development is central to the revenue plan.Doerkson inherits a large majority and a clear electoral mandate for change, but he also inherits a high structural deficit, plus some sticky legislative and legal frameworks.Success will depend on turning resource-sector growth into revenue while restraining spending enough to stabilize the books — without triggering the kind of internal or external backlash that has undone previous BC governments.We wish Mr. Doerkson luck — and hope that the people who elected him recognize just how big a job they have handed to him.Rodeo was the easy part. Now he has his hands full.
