STEPHENSON: Can a weak BC premier contain the energy vandals he's putting in cabinet?

Brock Stephenson is a political commentator from B.C.Now that Premier David Eby has named his cabinet, someone needs to pay attention to the troublesome three-way divide within the his party, the BC NDP. During the election, Eby knew he had to respond to voters’ worries. So, he campaigned (successfully, but barely) on two policies borrowed from his centre-right BC Conservative opponents that people really cared about: abandoning the carbon tax and involuntary treatment for drug addicts. While Eby was doing this, some of his candidates were not tacking to the centre like their leader but staying true to their hard-left views. Now, Eby is trying to govern for the voters who gave him his reprimand along with the narrowest of majorities. Meanwhile however, he has put the social justice and environmental wings of his party in prominent cabinet roles and seems to be showing little leadership on policy or direction.While he hesitates, will somebody else grab the wheel?Eby has delayed giving his new cabinet mandate letters while he consults with the two Green Party MLAs who will help him pass legislation without having to use the BC NDP-elected Speaker to break any tie votes. With no one in charge, maybe one of these NDP Ministers might step up and show some leadership. Unfortunately, when one looks at who is sitting around the cabinet table, the prospects for B.C.’s economy are not rosy. Take for instance, Christine Boyle, a Vancouver MLA now in Cabinet as Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Minister.Boyle is a newcomer to provincial government but has deep roots on the left and in Eby’s social circle. She has been tied to Eby and his spouse by the Vancouver Sun and by Boyle’s defeated nomination opponent Andrea Reimer. (Reimer congratulated Eby’s wife when Boyle defeated Reimer to become the NDP’s first nominated candidate for the October 2024 election.)As a United Church Minister and Vancouver’s most-successful hard-left city councillor of the 21st century, Boyle did lots of preaching before she was named to her new ministry. She is a prominent opponent of LNG. As a councillor, she presented a motion to Vancouver City Council against the Richmond, B.C., Tilbury LNG facility that was passed by council in 2021. Maybe she’s who could extend an olive branch to Green MLA Jeremy Valeriote, who won his seat while openly opposing an LNG project in his own riding.Boyle has clearly been willing to take action on climate. In 2019, she introduced a motion at Vancouver City Council to declare a climate emergency. Under the Kennedy Stewart-headed council, the motion passed. She and fellow left-wing councillor Jean Swanson also attempted to hold global fossil-fuel companies responsible for a share of Vancouver’s climate costs as part of a larger class action lawsuit against fossil fuel companies by B.C. communities. In 2022, the plan progressed to Sue Big Oil and asked for $1 per resident to explore a lawsuit against fossil fuel companies. (In 2023, the Ken Sim majority on council rescinded some of her anti-fossil fuel efforts.)Boyle has also played a prominent role in fighting natural gas in Vancouver buildings and has lobbied for the banning of its use. The left claims this is saving residents money but that is hardly the case. The latest attempts to reverse Boyle’s natural gas policy on new buildings in Vancouver failed in a vote at council in November 2024.Boyle’s spouse is also a climate zealot, working for the David Suzuki Institute creation the Climate Emergency Fund which fights to stop climate change by “pressing for the implementation of wartime-scale policies in Canada to confront the climate crisis.” He has opposed natural gas and LNG including the Nisga’a-led Ksi Lisims LNG project, writing “While I respect the need of the Nisga’a Nation to secure new forms of employment and economic development, the Ksi Lisims LNG project cannot be the answer. Its harm to the climate far surpasses the benefits.” Is Boyle more enlightened than her husband or would she have to recuse herself on any rulings related to this project?Upon being sworn into cabinet, Boyle wrote that her ministry is “a responsibility that I take very seriously.” But in her six-paragraph post, she made no mention of economic development for B.C. First Nations. It seems like they’ll get the same quality treatment as non-First Nations on that front.The late John Horgan came out of the NDP of the 1980s and 1990s that still had organized labour in the driver’s seat. Eby, who wrote the book on how to sue the police, comes from the social justice wing. Meanwhile, his cabinet colleague Boyle is from the environmental end. (Her social media feed is scattered with photos from pipeline protests.) The labour wing of the party has declined with private sector unions. The social justice wing has the Premier but he does not seem to want the task of taking charge. Only Boyle seems to want to take the fight to her opponents. In her role provincially, Boyle is a key point of contact for First Nations — no easy task (for either side) at the best of times. Boyle has written “we can’t expand fracking, we can’t expand LNG, we can’t build new fossil fuel infrastructure.” Many of the biggest revenue generators for Canadian First Nations in recent years have been natural resource projects on their hereditary territory. What happens if a B.C. First Nation proposes fracking, LNG development, or new fossil fuel infrastructure? Does Boyle stay true to herself and fight them? Could she take a break from her zealotry and respect their wishes?That's the question. The recently admonished BC NDP government was reduced to the narrowest majority possible and learned nothing from its near-defeat and so far, David Eby’s plan is nothing more than one of MLA pay raises through promotion to cabinet and waiting around to February 2025 to reconvene the Legislature. In other words, no plan yet. He delayed delivering mandate letters until 2025 — supposedly after he consults with the two Green MLAs to see what will keep them in lockstep for as much of the next four years as possible. Eby needs time to figure out how to halt the mad, bad, and dangerous and to get to know BC Conservatives — of whom he has publicly stated include several MLAs he would refuse to legitimize by hearing their priorities. No surprise then, it will be four months after the election before BC gets a Throne Speech. But, power abhors a vacuum.It’s David Eby’s British Columbia, but he’s not in charge and never has been. He'd better step up or he risks one of his MLAs deciding to lead the province her way. To be blunt, If not Eby, it may — unfortunately — just be friend-of-the-family Christine Boyle.Brock Stephenson is a political commentator from B.C.

STEPHENSON: Can a weak BC premier contain the energy vandals he's putting in cabinet?

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