It’s On! Opposition Scrambles as Eby Calls Election

Premier David Eby sent British Columbia into a snap election today, just two years into the NDP’s mandate and as the fractured opposition parties move quickly to organize themselves into a viable alternative.

“We have big decisions to make as a province and you, British Columbians, deserve a say in the direction that we choose,” Eby said this afternoon, announcing he had asked Lieutenant Governor Wendy Cocchia to dissolve the legislature ahead of an Oct. 24 vote.

He presented the choice as one between Trump-style chaos and division from the opposition parties or an NDP government that would stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump, protect British Columbians and build a stronger province.

“The conditions in our country have changed,” Eby said, comparing the NDP to a fire break in a wildfire. “When you smell smoke, you don’t sit and wait to see what happens next. You act.”

Eby had signalled in recent weeks that despite the NDP’s majority in the legislature and the two years left until the fixed election date, an early provincial vote was increasingly likely.

The provincial election will be one week after local government elections for mayors and councillors and the campaigns will overlap.

The election call comes as the opposition parties scramble following Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s resignation on Sunday. Findlay won the leadership in a narrow vote in May, but was plagued with a series of scandals, criticisms of her staffing choices and the departure of many MLAs.

The party that had won 44 seats in the last election and narrowly missed forming government had shrunk to 24 by Friday, though some MLAs who had called for Findlay’s resignation have since rejoined the party.

The Conservative party’s interim leader is Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson.

Meanwhile at least eight former B.C. Conservative MLAs merged last week with CentreBC, a party formed by disgruntled BC United members after the 2024 election.

Peter Milobar, who came fifth in the B.C. Conservative leadership race, was to be the interim leader of CentreBC.

Shortly after Eby’s announcement, the B.C. Conservative party released a statement saying Doerkson and Milobar “have come together to give British Columbians a viable governing alternative to the NDP chaos.”

The party, which reportedly has enlisted Katy Merrifield as campaign director and Dimitri Pantazopoulos as deputy campaign manager, may prove to be stronger than expected.

Despite the provincial party’s woes, the Conservative brand remains strong in large parts of the province. Even amid the turmoil, an Ipsos poll released last week found 35 per cent support for the Conservatives, with just a 10-point gap to close with the NDP.

The party also has some financial resources. In the first two quarters of the year, a period that included its leadership race, it raised $2.2 million, which was about $400,000 more than the NDP. Both parties also get about $1.8 million a year in public subsidy based on the results of the last election.

CentreBC, which receives no public subsidy, has raised a total of just over $44,000.

A statement from CentreBC president Mike Wignall said, “We are disappointed that Peter Milobar and others did not stand by commitments made to this party, its Executive Council, and its members.”

CentreBC remains committed to its foundational values and “will not be selling out to divisive politics,” he said, adding that the party will field as many candidates as it can.

The next big hurdle for the opposition Conservatives will be to nominate candidates and ramp up a campaign, challenges made more difficult by last week’s change of leadership and the purging in recent months of officials who were key to the party’s surge in 2024.

The NDP will also have some changes. Cabinet minister Lana Popham, first elected in 2009, announced she won’t be running again in Saanich South. Others may bow out in the coming days.

The party will also have to decide whether to stick with its equity mandate. When an elected female NDP MLA retires, she can be replaced only by another woman. When a male MLA retires, the replacement has to be either a woman or a member of another equity-seeking group.

The mandate, which is largely credited with the B.C. legislature reaching gender parity, has been mostly followed except in extenuating circumstances, such as in 2020 when the party failed to find an eligible woman or a member of another equity-seeking group to run in Stikine.

Veteran Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer wrote that there’s no demonstrable urgency for a provincial election. “Rather, Eby is moving to capitalize on a split opposition to rescue a political career that was on the rocks a few months ago,” he said. “The result will be as cynical and dishonest and unnecessary an election call as I have witnessed in more than 40 years of covering B.C. politics.”

Brad Zubyk, who was former BC Conservative leader John Rustad’s chief of staff, wrote on the social media platform X that criticism of the election call will dissipate quickly.

“The argument that the Eby government doesn’t deserve another mandate is easy to make but the argument that there is a viable alternative is more challenging.”

In a month Eby could look like a fool or a hero, Zubyk said. “He could end up regretting his impatience.... Campaigns matter and this one will as well.”