B.C. premier's decision to call election came down to Trump chaos and Conservative disorder
Preparations for a snap election call began in earnest two weeks ago as U.S. President Trump became a focal point once again for British Columbians, and the B.C. Conservatives continued to come apart at the seams, according to multiple sources within the NDP.
On Tuesday, at Government House, B.C. Premier David Eby repeatedly cited Trump and the uncertainty caused by U.S. tariffs as the rationale for plunging headlong into a provincial election campaign, with voting day on Oct. 24, while downplaying the role the Tories played into his thinking.
“Donald Trump is attacking our workers. He’s targeting our businesses, and he is threatening our sovereignty. He’s threatening our ability to make decisions for ourselves. We buy from him, but the direction was set. This is exactly what Trump wants. He wants to weaken us. He wants to divide us. He wants to drive up our costs and put our businesses and our workers at risk,” said Eby.
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Asked about the ethics of calling an election amid the municipal elections, set to conclude Oct. 17, and the resignation of B.C. Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Eby simply said: “There is never a bad time to go to British Columbians to ask the right direction.”
An election style rally held by Eby at Victoria’s Inner Harbour on Sept. 8 was the first public indication that the province could soon be heading back to the polls, less than two years since the 2024 race returned Eby to the premier’s office by the narrowest of margins.
But it wasn’t until the next week at the Union of B.C. Municipalities Conference in Vancouver that the rumour mill really started taking off, with Postmedia News being told that MLAs had been asked to prepare for an election and strategists asked to clear their schedules.
Postmedia was also told that the NDP had even contracted a campaign bus through ICBC, despite party officials saying in the aftermath of the 2024 election that the era of having a bus for the leader’s tour was over.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on vancouversun.com — the content belongs to Vancouver Sun.
