Originally published by People’s Voice.

In the middle of municipal elections, BC premier David Eby called a snap provincial election for October 24, only two years into his NDP government’s term. But what may have seemed at the time like a strategic move on his part, though nakedly opportunistic, may end up backfiring.

The BC NDP just barely pulled out a slim majority in the October 2024 election. Since then, they have only lost legitimacy. Some recent bumps in Eby’s popularity courtesy of tough talk directed at Donald Trump may have given the NDP leader some false confidence. But most British Columbians aren’t as concerned with Trump as they are about more immediate things like the cost of living, healthcare and jobs.

On the other hand, the Conservative Party of BC looked like it was about to implode only a few weeks ago. John Rustad was gone as leader. His successor, the MAGA-brain Kerri-Lynn Findlay, was widely considered to be “unelectable” even by a large section of the party’s base. She bled the party of members for four months before announcing her own resignation two days before the election was called.

However, the day following Findlay’s resignation, former BC Liberal Lorne Doerksen was named the interim Tory leader. Fourteen MLAs who fled under either Rustad or Findlay came scurrying back into the party now led by the financial consultant from BC’s interior.

Eby doesn’t quite have such a unifying effect. After tightening the leash on his party over the controversial North Coast Transmission Line legislation in November 2025, he had to back down from his attempt to suspend the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) in April because of the push back from his own party.

Four of Eby’s cabinet ministers chose not to run again. Both Ravi Kahlon and Brenda Bailey have cited personal reasons for their resignations. One might speculate, however, that Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene and Agriculture Minister Lana Popham don’t want their legacies to be tied to severe budget cuts and privatization.

An Angus Reid poll taken two days after the writ drop reflected these shifts. The Conservatives jumped out to an early 8-point lead over the NDP. Sixty-five percent of people polled thought Eby was putting his own interests above those of the province in calling an early election. Only two-thirds of people who voted for the NDP in the last election said they intend to do so again.

A more recent poll has the NDP gaining back some of the progressive vote from the Greens, but the Conservatives still hold a 5-point lead. While Doerksen’s popularity rises, three-fifths of those surveyed view Eby “unfavourably.”

It’s little wonder why. The NDP’s record on keeping election promises is dismal. $10-a-day childcare is dead. Their promise to provide every British Columbian with an annual $1,000 grocery rebate was cancelled only four months after the election – the government blamed Trump, an ongoing theme for the NDP. Their promise to connect every person living in BC with a family doctor by the end of 2025 fell short by well over a million people.

Healthcare is a high priority for people in the province. Periodic unexpected emergency room closures have plagued this government, while waiting lists for surgeries and appointments with specialists have caused premature deaths and health-related anxiety.

There’s also the list of progressive policies that the NDP reversed.

Lisa Lapointe, the former BC coroner, demonstrated that the NDP’s safe supply policy was saving lives. She was still thrown under the bus by Eby after he lost his stomach for the controversial project. The NDP have taken on the carceral approach to addiction, pouring money into involuntary care while over 7,000 patients languish on the waiting list for voluntary addiction care. Lapointe is running in Saanich for the Greens.

It’s difficult to take promises from a governing party like this one seriously. In the early days of this year’s campaign, Eby has promised to tax vacant condos, to reverse an earlier decision to cancel funding for a new hospital in Burnaby, to tackle skyrocketing grocery prices and introduce higher taxes for the ultra-wealthy.

These promises come off as desperate attempts to win back voters. There’s not much confidence that they will be realized or have any impact. A government that plans to spend almost $100 billion this year could end homelessness if it so chose but it prioritizes corporate profits over people’s needs.

The Conservatives are running on two very reactionary policies. The first is to eliminate SOGI 123, an educational initiative to make schools safer and more inclusive for students of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Secondly, they promise to repeal DRIPA, which requires laws in BC to adhere to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

However, the NDP are not much better on these issues. The SOGI 123 resource for teachers was developed by the ARC Foundation (Awareness, Respect and Capacity). ARC announced on September 29 that it was winding down operations due to its loss of funding from the NDP government, placing SOGI 123 in serious jeopardy.

Secondly, David Eby has been a vocal critic of DRIPA. High profile, complex legal cases like the Cowichan decision in BC’s Supreme Court have been seized upon by racist groups and fear-mongering MLAs to falsely claim that “fee simple” property rights are being attacked by Indigenous nations and the government. Instead of playing a constructive role in negotiations between homeowners and the nations in question, the NDP has fed alarmism by criticizing the courts following the ruling.

Unsurprisingly, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs have been one of Eby’s sharpest detractors. But they are far from being the only ones.

David Eby has called for thousands of public sector jobs to be cut. He has proposed to take on the housing speculation crisis by buying out private landlords and developers with public money. He has applauded Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney for getting a deal done for the new Pacific Link pipeline that tramples over Indigenous rights. And he has overseen billions in handouts to private extractive corporations to exploit the province’s natural resources.

The fear of a Conservative victory may have led some initially Green-inclined voters to support the NDP in the most recent polling. Other factors in this shift may include the inability of the Greens to field a full slate of 93 candidates after the snap election call (they did nominate 73), and their largely untested policy promises.

But it still remains to be seen which parties might capitalize on Eby’s unpopularity and the NDP’s failures during this short campaign.