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.

BC voters made a pretty decisive call for change Saturday, but which change did they really vote for?

The NDP took a beating, and the Conservatives have a strong majority but ballot boxes are notoriously blunt communication tools. You have to make a lot of guesses about what voters said; most of those guesses will be wrong.

Was this a Blue Wave? Has BC gone small- and big-C Conservative? Was this a vote against the NDP? Was it a vote against David Eby?

My guess is the latter and it’s been fascinating to watch.

Eby’s been around this province a long time acting like, if not being, the smartest guy in the room. He was far better off behind the coattails of an affable NDP everyman with good intentions like John Horgan, who could also temper Eby’s worst instincts. Without the man who got the NDP back in power, Eby spent all Horgan’s political capital even faster than he spent his budgets.

In the end, his hubris and failure to learn that exact same lesson after the 2024 election led to his stunning loss to an interim leader no one had ever heard of.

The smart guy will forever be known for doing the dumbest things. It drips with delicious irony.

It looked like the NDP party abandoned him, NDP voters definitely did, and I wonder if he did as well. Did he look at any point in that campaign like a confident leader who wanted to return?

So now we are going to find out who the BC Conservatives really are. Are they a large tent party in the fashion of Christy Clark/Gordon Campbell Liberals? Or something new and different?

Will Lorne Doerkson remain premier? Have they purged enough of the extremists in the party? How will the troubling aspects of its history impact its future, particularly with First Nations?

How do you see things? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Mj
Marshall Jones
Managing Editor

iN RESPONSE

iN RESPONSE to Monday’s newsletter opinion-editorial on the BC election results

Hi. I voted NDP.
I think (Kamloops MLA) Peter Milobar is a power hungry and I am not impressed with him.
I believe that the Conservatives are going to spend the next years fighting among themselves. They want private health care, they want to get rid of the protections for the most vulnerable in our province, and they want us to be the 51st state.
And the so called premier has not been voted as the leader of the party. Is he really a premier or a place holder?
Last time they voted, they brought in a wack-a-doodle. God help our province over the next few years.
And yes, I think Eby made the biggest misstep in our political history.

— Tracey Lodge via email

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