“The last thing I want is an election.”
—David Eby
How do you know when a premier wants an early election? He starts loudly pretending he doesn’t.
Such is the case for Premier David Eby, who has begun searching for ways to turn his one-seat majority into something larger — while his opponents are weakened and before his own political fortunes decline further.
Eby abruptly declared Wednesday he’d reluctantly have to call an election if Bill 31, his legislation to fast-track construction of the North Coast Transmission Line, failed to pass the legislature.
“The last thing I want is an election,” said Eby, who stopped, unprompted, to make the comments to reporters. “With that said, you know, this bill is non-negotiable for me.”
In reality, the Eby government has the votes to pass the legislation. Even if all the Greens, Conservatives, OneBC members and independents voted against it, NDP Speaker Raj Chouhan could break the tie and cast the deciding vote in favour of the bill.
The only way for it to fail would be if the NDP someone engineered one of its own MLAs to miss a vote.
‘Let’s go dance’
Eby’s NDP lost ground in the 2024 election, running a lackluster campaign on a platform with few new ideas that barely held off a surge in voter support for the BC Conservatives.
But an early election would allow the NDP to take advantage of disarray within the BC Conservative party, where leader John Rustad has lost five MLAs in the last seven months and is facing calls to resign from his own party board.
It would also jam the BC Greens, who just elected a new leader in September and are reorganizing internally.
Rustad called the premier’s comments “brinksmanship.”
“If he wants to go to the polls, drop the writ.”
John Rustad
“We’ll see what the public think about the way he’s handled private property rights, how he’s handling health care crisis, how he’s handling the drugs and crime, how the fact that our forest sector is in shambles, how the fact that their entire economy, quite frankly, is in shambles, not to mention bankrupting this province,” said Rustad.
“If he wants to go to the polls, drop the writ. Let’s go dance.”
Bill 31 ‘non-negotiable,’ says premier
Rustad said the North Coast Transmission Line doesn’t need to be built, and the money would be better spent building power in the northwest.
Eby appears concerned Bill 31 could be amended against the government’s will during committee stage debate, inserting or removing clauses the government does not support.
The premier was reacting to an attempt from the Conservatives on Tuesday to amend the bill during second reading with what is called a hoist motion, which would have pushed the legislation off for six months.
“This bill, basically, will ration electricity and centralize power in the hands of the minister,”
David Williams
“It’s about accountability, it’s about transparency, and it’s about sending a clear message to this government that legislation of this magnitude should not be rushed through under the banner of modernization, when in truth, this bill, basically, will ration electricity and centralize power in the hands of the minister,” Conservative MLA David Williams said when tabling the amendment.
The amendment failed. And the bill later passed second reading.
But it nonetheless appeared to raise both alarm bells and bells of opportunity in the premier’s office, which immediately sought to capitalize upon it.
“This is non-negotiable for us,” said Eby. “I would stake our government on it.”
“This is non-negotiable for us… I would stake our government on it.”
David Eby
“We have a very narrow margin in the legislature,” added Eby.
“The Greens have not agreed to support this legislation, and so any attempt to delay or prevent this bill from going ahead, allowing us to realize that economic future is a direct threat to the economic prosperity of British Columbians and Canadians as a whole.
“And at this time, we cannot afford that approach.”
Party’s final vote undecided, says Green house leader
Bill 31 would speed up a planned $6 billion transmission line from Prince George to Terrace, which Eby has called a “nation-building project” due to its ability to help electrify mines, natural gas sites, LNG terminals and ports on the northwest coast.
It would also give BC Hydro the ability to limit electricity to AI data centres and other types of customers, prioritizing it for natural resource projects.
Eby said the line could unlock 10,000 new jobs, add $9.8 billion to the B.C. economy and generate more than $1 billion annually in provincial revenue. However, that assumes numerous private sector mining, natural gas and LNG projects access the electricity, make final investment decisions to build their projects, and money begins to flow to government in an unknown number of years in the future.
The legislation would also allow First Nations to buy equity stakes in the line, as well as exempt it from certain approvals required by the independent energy watchdog, the BC Utilities Commission.
“The premier can call an election if he wants, that’s his prerogative.”
Jermey Valeriote
The BC Green Party said it’s concerned at the loss of oversight by the Utilities Commission, but supports the idea of Indigenous co-ownership.
The party’s two MLAs voted in favour of the legislation on second reading, but house leader Jeremy Valeriote said he’s unsure of the party’s final vote.
“The premier can call an election if he wants, that’s his prerogative,” he said. “If he wants to make it about Bill 31, that’s really premature.”
Valeriote called it an “excuse” for the premier.
That may well be true.
The committee stage and third vote of the bill is yet to come. As are future attempts by the premier to engineer an election of his own making.