B.C. Government (Conservative Majority), 2026-(NLT)2031

[daftandbarmy]

Former BC NDP government's Finance Minister disses her old boss in public.



David Eby was never my choice for leader of the BCNDP.

He asked for my endorsement in the days after John Horgan stepped down, but I told him that I was going to sit the leadership race out. I told him that as the Finance Minister I believed that staying neutral while putting together a budget was necessary for working with all colleagues during a leadership race. What I didn’t share with David was that his leadership style didn’t jive well with me and I had already made my decision to not run in the scheduled 2024 election. I would work with whomever was leader for the rest of the mandate and retire in October 2024 - that was my plan.

This wasn’t the first time that David asked for my endorsement as leader. In the fall of 2013, just a few months after we were both elected, Adrian Dix stepped down as leader and David came to my office informing me that he was planning on putting his name forward for leader. I was a bit stunned given that we had been MLAs for what felt like five minutes, we didn’t even know where the bathrooms were in the Legislature and he was gunning for leader. At the time I thought that was plenty of chutzpah. I let him know that it was too early for me to endorse anyone, that I wanted to see who else might be interested in the leadership. Within weeks, David called to say he had changed his mind, that he had just learned that his partner was pregnant and that the timing for leadership no longer worked for him. Even though he withdrew, I saw his ambition back then and the hubris that came with it.

It also didn’t help that over the years I had had some run-ins with David Eby as a colleague in Cabinet and as a result I still didn’t think he had what it takes to be a leader who can work in a team, bring out the best in his caucus members and appeal to voters. I experienced David as a political animal with little to no humility. While a smart man, he was not always the smartest, as the election result showed. He was not particularly grounded in a consistent set of values, made panicked, shoot from the hip decisions and was mostly interested in just beating up the opposition, acting on his ideas and retaining power, whatever the cost.

On Hubris

David Eby’s downfall and how he brought the BCNDP down with him

selinarobinson.substack.com

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

ANYONE but Eby (and Jagmeet) to lead that party is an improvement. Interim leader so they have to do a new leader selection.

If the NDP gets back to its grass roots (low income and union workers, single parents, etc) they can re-build. Otherwise they keep chasing the radical left ideology, they are cooked.

The problem with trying to target low-income and Union workers is they aren’t the same social group. Union workers aren't low income, most of them are middle to high-income.

The Union folks I deal with are all making $140,000-$200,000+ a year with a High School education. Pro-Union Policies and Pro-Low Income policies aren't the same.

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

On that note as well:

Private Sector Unions, particularly in the trades/construction/resource extraction are substantially more likely to support Conservatives because Conservative economic policies and deregulation promote job security for them.

Private sector Unions are also basically in bed with their respective company leadership and they more or less march in step when it comes to the business side of things.

As far as I'm concerned, the modern NDP is anti-Union in terms of their policies.