If anything can rival the surprising status of the Vancouver Canucks, it must be that of the BC NDP. A half-year from an election, the script wasn’t supposed to play out this way.
Typical of this Teflon government was the recent dissection by the Business Council of British Columbia of the vaunted CleanBC plan’s pain for our economy. The BCBC didn’t have to conduct any of its own research on this – the government’s own numbers told the tale – but it ought to have been a loitering odour and a campaigning pinpoint as we approach the election. We’ll see.
Indeed, Premier David Eby is prepared to make a meal on contentious issues like the ill-timed 23-per-cent increase April 1 of the carbon tax. He is in a small political cohort – seven premiers, including one Liberal, have called for the increase to be cancelled, and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has turned his axe-the-tax sights on him.
The question is how enduring that Conservative surge is. A huge benefit for the NDP is that it’s the only party without an identity issue. Voters are having trouble understanding who the United and Conservative parties represent – the once-mighty former one is wounded by that, the once-teensy latter one is boosted.