Yesterday, Premier David Eby called an election next month. You’d think the world had ended.
I really don’t understand all those people who think we’ll all be so “confused”. If you’re stupid enough to be confused, then you’re probably shouldn’t be qualified to vote. It’s as simple as that.
I can understand the Union of BC Municipalities asking the provincial government to hold off, but that’s all they could do, ask. The UBCM published a press release a few days ago entitled, “UBCM president calls for distinct local and provincial election periods“; that’s nice in principle, even highly desirable, but I don’t think it’s an absolute necessity at this time.
Eby frames, as he is wont to do, this election as being a reaction to trump and his tariffs. It’s a good excuse, but I don’t think he is being 100% accurate. He’s calling this election, now, two years before he is required to, because his main opposition, the Conservative Party of British Columbia, is in complete disarray … although they’ve managed to get their shit together somewhat now that their leader has resigned and the election has been called by accepting back into the party those party MLAs that were expelled in the last couple of months, except the one they attacked personally. (See my previous comments on why I don’t understand how gay people can possibly be conservatives.) And that’s the thing British Columbians need to remember; as long as I’ve been alive — and I assure you, that’s been a lot longer than most of you have — the conservatives have billed themselves as the “experienced” party, the one that has their shit together and the experience to run a government, and their opposition, whoever they are, as being … well, the opposite. But that old trope is an old trope, if you’ll excuse my redundancy. The NDP, in this case, has plenty of experience governing this province. Have they been 100% successful? No, not even close, but have the “conservative” parties, including the British Columbia Liberal Party, been any more successful? Again, not even close.
And that’s also the thing. Whether they’re called the British Columbia Liberal Party (which has nothing to do with the Liberal Party of Canada), the British Columbia Social Credit Party, BC United, One BC, the Conservative Party of British Columbia, CentreBC or any other charlatan party that claims to represent the conservative right, the conservative right is anything but united, and the use of the word (as in Alberta) is simply to try to deceive British Columbians (and Albertans) into believing that they have their shit together when a few minutes of observation will show exactly the opposite. But that’s OK, because British Columbians have quite cleverly found other parties who have done an admirable job of governing this province instead of the Socreds/Liberals/Conservatives/Centre.
Look, I’m not going to vote for the NDP, but I’m certainly not going to vote for the party (BC Conservatives) that showed their true colours when they personally attacked Elenore Sturko, one of their own MLAs! As when John Horgan called an election in 2020, I don’t really see the need to put British Columbians through an election at this time, especially over the objection of the UBCM, but I’m only a voter, so who cares what I think. I’ll obviously show up and do my citizen duty to mark my ballot, and I will, also as usual, do so for one of the lesser-known parties … the Green Party of British Columbia in this case.
The Greens suffer from the same libel as any non-conservative party, being decried as having no experience and not good enough to take on the big job of governing a region/province/country. I’m willing to give them that rope, and yank it back again in four years if necessary. They can’t do any worse than the Liberals/Conservatives have done in the past.