Eby tries to capitalize with snap election after BC Conservative caucus revolt
Premier David Eby called a snap election days after BC Conservative MLAs forced Kerry-Lynne Findlay to resign, a move Sheila Gunn Reid said undermined the democratic choice of their own party membership and handed the NDP a gift-wrapped opportunity.
The BC Conservative Party is walking into a snap election without a leader. And Sheila Gunn Reid, on Wednesday's Buffalo Roundtable, wanted to make clear exactly who is responsible for that.
Kerry-Lynne Findlay was chosen as BC Conservative leader fair and square by the party membership. What followed, Sheila described as a tantrum — a group of MLAs who didn't get the result they wanted, threatened to leak a tape of Finley's husband, sat as independents to weaken the caucus, and effectively held the party hostage until she resigned.
"Crybaby MLAs, you just gave the NDP what they wanted," Sheila said. "You should have shut your mouths, got behind the new leader, because that's what the people who voted for you wanted. You don't get to decide. The people get to decide."
Premier David Eby had been waiting for exactly this moment. Within days of Finley's forced resignation, he called a snap election — two years after the last one — against an opposition with its pants around its ankles and no leader in place. "He was waiting for this," Sheila said. "He literally called it days after you guys forced out Kerry-Lynne Findlay. Well done."
And the campaign Eby is running, Sheila says, is the Carney playbook, word for word.
Rather than defend his own record, Eby is blaming Donald Trump for the price of gas at the pump, for the cost of essentials, for economic anxiety across BC.
"He's learned a little something from Mark Carney," Sheila said. "He knows he can brainwash, with the help of the mainstream media, enough people to fear Donald Trump instead of having to campaign on his own record." She pointed out that Eby controls BC's fuel taxes and could cut them — but he'd rather blame Trump's Middle East conflict for prices at the pump than acknowledge the taxes his own government sets.
The record Eby can't campaign on is substantial. Property rights have been eroded by his government's failure to push back on Indigenous land claims. Crime is out of control. Drug gangs and cartels are running amok in the Lower Mainland, driving an extortion crisis. The fentanyl emergency is ongoing. "Is BC tangibly better than it was under his government?" Sheila asked. "Most definitely not."
The BC Conservatives need to get ready fast. They may not have a leader, but they have an election. And the MLAs who caused this, Sheila said, didn't just sabotage Kerry-Lynne Findlay. "They've sabotaged all of you."
The Buffalo Roundtable airs Wednesdays at 11 a.m. MT / 1 p.m. ET.
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