If B.C. Premier David Eby and his NDP caucus manage to cling to power coming out of that province’s election when the final vote counts are in, it will be a “Pyrrhic victory.”
That’s a victory that does so much damage to the winner, it wasn’t worth the cost of achieving it.
It’s good news for federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, gearing up to contest a federal election with the polls in B.C. showing they are well ahead of both the NDP and Liberals.
As for B.C.’s NDP government, the election results reported Sunday suggested many voters were disillusioned with its so-called “progressive” agenda, such as decriminalizing drug use in public spaces.
That caused so much chaos the NDP had to abandon it soon after approving it.
Entering the election, the NDP had the advantages of a majority government at its disposal.
It had been in power since 2017 and presided over a majority government since the 2020 election, when it captured 57 of 87 seats.
Emerging from the wreckage of Sunday’s vote, preliminary results put the NDP at 46 seats, just one ahead of John Rustad’s upstart Conservative Party which won 45 seats.
The last two ridings in B.C.’s 93-seat legislature went to the Greens, although their leader lost her own seat.
Eby may be able to negotiate a deal with the Greens to continue governing for now, but the election result showed momentum clearly lies with Rustad and the Conservatives, while the NDP can only ignore them at their peril.
They weren’t even considered a significant force in B.C. politics until another centre-right party — B.C. United — suspended its campaign, urging voters to switch to the Conservatives, which many clearly did.
The NDP spent a lot of time singling out Conservative candidates for what it said were racist and derogatory comments.
That was rich coming from an NDP caucus rife with antisemitism, according to former Jewish cabinet minister Selina Robinson, who resigned from the government and didn’t run in this election
She said despite repeatedly apologizing for a remark about the creation of Israel that offended pro-Palestinian groups, anti-Semites in the NDP drove her out of the party, while Eby hung her out to dry.