iN DISCUSSION: Eby and the NDP have made a classic mistake

This is where cold hard facts give way to the hottest of takes, mostly mine I suppose. I’m the editor, Marshall Jones.

Want to include yours? Listen, this isn’t the comment section, this isn’t social media. Discussion and debate requires context and a wee bit of bravery — we need your name and where you’re writing from. Include it in your account or email me anytime.

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The BC Conservative Party is a mess, no question.

The party showed all the maturity we should have expected and nearly imploded within two years.

Now let me explain why that’s a problem for the NDP.

Because Premier David Eby is smarter than you and he’s surrounded by more smart people. They looked at their competitors’ mess and thought — knew: These guys are all disorganized, they can’t govern, no one can vote for them. They think opposition faults are their advantage.

It’s a classic mistake.

They forgot that two years ago the BC Conservatives looked even worse, but voters were so eager to get rid of David Eby and the NDP, they nearly voted them in anyway.

Candidates like Macklin McCall, Kristina Loewen and Tara Armstrong didn’t come out of hiding throughout the entire campaign (cowards) and voters didn’t care. They still got in.

The NDP mistake is thinking the opposition has anything to do with this. They forgot that people don’t often vote for anything, they vote against things, parties and premiers.

It’s a referendum on the NDP. Voters will reward them appropriately based on their own record, no one else’s. Eby might have made a major blunder in calling this election early.

Thoughts? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Mj
Marshall Jones
Managing Editor

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There’s a reason David Eby looked into the camera and told British Columbians with a straight face that we need to vote again — in the middle of a local campaign — two years removed from the last one.

It’s effective.

Sure, we’re all going to carry a little resentment this government is playing these games — again — but will it really change your vote?

NDPers aren’t voting for Centre, Conservative or OneBC (if any of those parties even still exist, I haven’t checked Twitter this morning) over this.

I think the premier will probably succeed in this plan. But then again, his real risk is accidentally re-uniting the right. They’re bopping around like Plinko tiles into new buckets and they might have found the right combination.

The hard right is turning on the Conservatives and back into the political hinterland, known as OneBC, along with extremists in caucus like Brent Chapman and presumably Kerry-Lynne Findlay, too, if she can get elected. This election will tell us precisely the size of the far right contingent in this province.

That needed to happen anyway, to clean out the BC Conservative Party and make it look somewhat credible for the first time in, well, ever.

Have they already done it?

The NDP is not popular right now. David Eby is not popular and rather notably, there aren’t too many bright lights in that party when he’s gone.

This entire election is about whether the ever-present coalition against the BC NDP can organize itself quickly enough under deadline pressure.

What do you think will happen? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Mj
Marshall Jones
Managing Editor

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A head of iceberg lettuce would have been no contest for Kerry-Lynne Findlay, but she finds herself in a best-before bin of history all the same.

Just 113 days ago, she was pushed barely ahead of the BC Conservative Party’s best chance for credibility and a shot at governing by a base that instead wanted to keep fighting the culture wars that are so fashionable these days.

Findlay tried to deliver, taking ever more extreme positions, purging moderates from party ranks, attempting to seize all control of the party and gaining none of it.

Now she has already resigned. The BC Conservative Party was always a little loony until BC United/BC Liberal collapsed and joined them. The 2024 election that nearly brought this bunch to power has proven that spike was just a blip.

Now the NDP’s eyeing an election while the Official Opposition is shopping for a leader once again and CentreBC is rising. A true split on the right.

The real question now is how the real powerbrokers in this province — the same folks who demanded BC United cave to the Conservatives just to beat the NDP — will choose who to unite behind.

If you’re an NDP supporter, you’re probably loving this. I’m curious about non-NDP supporters — which way will you choose? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Mj
Marshall Jones
Managing Editor

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iN RESPONSE

iN RESPONSE to Friday’s newsletter opinion-editorial on the provincial election

Like you, I feel that Eby should not have called a snap election but have completed his mandate, just like the NDP Premier Dave Barrett who called a election in 1975, one year before he had to. It resulted in the NDP being defeated before many of the changes Barrett’s government implemented could be accepted by the general public of BC. To my mind in this time of Trump and our federal government dealing with the US, it is not the time to play political games. It is bad enough Alberta with the United Conservative Party, (Danielle Smith), having a separation vote and their Premier supporting the separatists in October to have BC have a election the same month. A backlash would not surprise me.

— George Miller via email

The Conservative party has done nothing over the past two years but demonstrated inter-party rivalry, dissension, underhanded maneuvering amongst themselves, and a blatant disrespect towards each other. Why on earth would a voter be enticed to vote for a party that cannot govern themselves, let alone the province.

— Lori Ellison

Hi Marshall. Thanks for the article. Hopefully many read it. Voting against the current government is really the only protest a Canadian voter can make. Irrespective of level of Government, there isn’t a viable mechanism to remove any politician. Albeit, we have the vote of non-confidence in BC, the process and the requirements are laughable. 60% of voters in a riding when 60% don’t vote.

Eby is intelligent, but his puppet strings are being pulled by those that aren’t interested in the average British Columbian, or for that matter, Canadian.

Eby’s arrogance is insulting, his political direction counter to what’s required today. The policies, the decisions, the turning away from what matters, calling Trump the reason he’s calling the election is a joke. Deflecting from his abysmal record is the reality. Good riddance I say.

— Mark Livingston via email

This is a hard one. I am very disappointed that Eby called a snap election, not a good time what with municipal elections underway and spending another $82 million to do it. Is that our money they are gambling away in less than two years since the last election.
There are not many that vote NDP in the Okanagan and the majority of residents in Kelowna and Kamloops vote Conservative so the NDP most likely will not have a chance of winning here but apart from that, we are tired of voting and my guess is that many of us will not vote except the diehards and they will vote for the Cons. Main reason to me is Canada is stupid when it comes to voting, we don’t vote for but against.

— Devon Johnstone

Vernon MP implies Russia behind wildfire ‘arsons’ in Canada

WOW this is who we have elected to represent us.

— Bonnie Derry via iNFOnews.ca

The spirited legacy behind Three Valley Gap, and why it’s worth stopping for

We used to drive by piles of times and never stopped. One time, we finally stopped, and spent a few hours touring the location. Its absolutely astonishing all the things to see there! I highly recommend making the time to stop!

— Peter Boyd via iNFOnews.ca

iN RESPONSE to Wednesday’s newsletter opinion-editorial on the snap provincial election call

Eby has just shot himself in the foot.
The Cons were in complete disarray: they were imploding and splintering, due to the psychopathy of their leader – KLF – and the NDP could’ve ridden that chaos for the next two years and fulfilled their mandate.
But no.
They had to go and call an election.
Now the voters are mad, and they’re going to vote against the NDP out of spite.
And guess who’s going to pay for their own stupidity? The voters.
Then, before you could blink, the Cons scurried like cockroaches, abandoned their splinter group and reformed into one group again. All within 48 hours.
Who would’ve guessed?
No one – least of all Eby – saw that move coming.
I’ll give you this: the Cons are sneaky.
My only hope is that Lorne Doerksen appears to be a reasonable guy, and that he will govern like a normal person, and not like that lunatic KLF.
I will still vote NDP, because they are the lesser of two evils, but what a mess.
Once again, BC lives up to its reputation for wild and woolly politics.

— Maryanna Derk via email

What I think will happen is that “brainwashed” ideological voters will vote in lockstep for the NDP etc. based on their particular brainwashing. Is that too cruel a judgement? How else can a hundred years of the federal Liberal party be explained as well as the refusal to try a new or hopefully better party, which probably doesn’t exist? My parents and family never discussed politics out of politeness or misguidedness but my family is only one small part of the problem. How do lifelong members of the Liberal Party “live” with themselves and the failure of that ideology, if they aren’t brainwashed?

I have never been a member of a political party and I say that with thankfulness and pride. I know a former coworker who went on to serve with the detested, by me at least, Conservative Party even though he was in a business in which the party never benefited the working class.

What I wish for is that every single eligible voter goes and makes an ethical, informed, decision and votes with their conscience. I wish the BC NDP would go down to everlasting defeat, every one of the candidates in the unemployment line, as with the BC Greens and BC Conservatives, that no incumbents would be elected, that they also receive a verbal tongue lashing from at least one voter in their time on the campaign trail, especially Amelia Boultbee who plays games with voters, whatever her true intentions.

— Patrick Longworth via email

The solution is simple: Vote for the democratic Liberals!

There are far too many Conservative nutjobs in Kamloops alone: the “Maple MAGAs” who love Trump and his dictatorial approach. They believe Canadian Conservatives support that style of “governance”. The big focus here is clearing out the mentally ill and substance-addicted who live on downtown streets, “no matter what it takes!” They “hate the putrid pieces of shit” and want to see the streets cleaned up by force.

While this complex issue is largely being ignored, we need a humane win/win solution. Our current mental health/addiction treatment system has been bandaged up so many times; it needs to be revamped so millions in government contracts each year are no longer wasted. This is also a focus for BC Liberals.

Just check out local Facebook Groups like “Kamloops Citizens for Change”, where you’ll find a slew of Conservative (Republican) Hammerjackson supporters. Some actually promote Canada becoming a 51st State of the US. It’s frightening!

Most Liberals I’ve observed are all for legally placing criminal addicts into large treatment centres in natural ranch/farm-type settings outside of the city for long-term treatment. I’m with those who will implement this in a humane, well-researched and thought-out way that doesn’t present a danger to all concerned.

As a party, the Conservatives are currently all over the place, unable to focus on anything but trying to get their act together. The NDP have proven themselves pretty much useless. Liberal leaders believe in democracy and allowing citizens to have a say. While Carney calls himself a Conservative, he behaves far more like a Liberal in his approach to politics and, so far, has shown himself to be an effective and successful leader. His conservativeness relates more to the economy, and that’s a good thing.

I hope citizens vote with informed, open minds, rather than out of tradition or, worse, blind anger.

— Karen Klein via email

Let’s say the obvious 1st!! This snap election would have happened if any one of the parties were in office and the same thing happened. Not just Eby and the NDP.

Next, it is not just about a power play or Government protecting their positions or anything other than wanting their values in the middle of probably the worst crises Canada has encounter in decades, what with the Trump administration bullying tactics against Canada with tariffs, and threats of annexation now with the excellent and strong governing by Carney with his Premiers to hold fast with elbow’s up.

I personally want that to be the priority and have continuity on going if possible!!

Now’s not the time to be tired from campaigns or taking time out vote. It’s probably one of the most important votes our life right now.

— Diane Courneyeur via email

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