Eby set out to exploit Conservatives’ misfortunes but sealed his own fate instead

The worst politicians achieve and retain power through cynical manipulation of voters, exploiting populist impulses and seizing upon opportunities to deny the electorate the right to make informed decisions. Eventually, they get called out.

British Columbia Premier David Eby just received a bitter lesson in the limits to such antidemocratic behaviour. Voters may not always pay enough attention to their politicians but, when they finally tune in, they show they’re not stupid. When a premier calls a snap election on the thinnest of excuses, barely two years after voters last went to the polls, even the most lackadaisical of voters can’t help but notice.

The NDP premier’s decision has handed interim Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson — a virtual unknown — the premiership, with the Conservatives leading in 64 seats. And Eby is out of a job.

Eby has no one to blame but himself for the NDP’s unmitigated electoral disaster and the Conservatives’ phoenix-like emergence from the ashes. At a time when he should have acted with grace and consideration for the chaos occurring in the opposition ranks, Eby saw instead an opportunity to exploit their troubles.

It was an epic miscalculation.

Eby’s troubles began almost immediately after the election call, when British Columbians began asking why they needed to vote again. Eby made the almost laughable claim that he called the election early because of threats posed by trade issues with U.S. President Donald Trump. “We need to build a firebreak . . . against Trump’s economic attack,” he argued in an early campaign speech.

Later in the campaign, Eby also complained about the difficulty of getting legislation passed with just a one-seat majority. Amendments to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act were among the contentious measures his government faced. Of course, many governments get work done with a one-vote majority.

Neither explanation adequately answered the question voters were asking: Why was an election necessary now?

Eby’s election call came after months of drama and disarray within the official opposition B.C. Conservative Party. The conservative movement had splintered during the frantic and short-lived tenure of Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay, whose leadership was marked by caucus expulsions, staff upheaval and increasingly bitter internal disputes. By the time Findlay resigned, 13 MLAs had left the party since August, and the future of the Conservatives looked grim.

For Eby, the temptation must have been irresistible. With the Conservatives fighting among themselves, what better time to seek another four years in office?

What further baffled me was why Eby went ahead and called the election even after Findlay stepped down. She resigned on Sept. 20, just two days before Eby called the election. Her policies and controversies had rendered the Conservatives effectively unelectable. Her departure, however, signalled that their fortunes could change, and a wiser premier would have waited to see what happened.

Instead, Eby pressed ahead, apparently convinced that the Conservatives’ troubles presented an opportunity too good to pass up. He apparently failed to consider that voters might resent being dragged back to the polls simply because he saw a chance to win another four years in power.

Strategically, it was a very high-risk undertaking because the situation with the Conservatives was highly fluid. That made the results unpredictable. What was easy to predict, however, was that Eby would struggle to come up with a credible explanation for calling the election.

The second reason was that it was simply an unethical thing to do. Eby was halfway through his mandate and still had a majority. British Columbians had given him a government to run, not an opportunity to exploit his opponents’ misfortunes for another four years in power.

Eby should have been prepared to face the Conservatives on even terms, not while the party was roiled by infighting. He had an ethical obligation to give the opposition a chance to get up off the mat. It is offensive that he chose to try kicking them while they were down.

The 2026 B.C. election will now go down in the record books as one of the most spectacular political miscalculations in Canadian history. It should also serve as a warning to politicians who put personal ambition ahead of the people they were elected to serve.

There is a better way. Look to Canada’s most popular premier — Manitoba’s Wab Kinew (63 per cent positive, according to the Angus Reid Institute) — and Prime Minister Mark Carney (56 per cent positive, according to Abacus Data). Nothing resembling Eby’s cynical opportunism is to be found in their bag of tricks.

B.C.’s troubles, meanwhile, are far from over. British Columbians must now get to know their new premier and discover what his priorities and leadership style will be.

First elected in 2020 in Cariboo-Chilcotin as a Liberal MLA, Doerkson stayed with the party while it rebranded itself as B.C. United, then crossed the floor to join the Conservatives in 2024. He won re-election that year as a Conservative, winning by a margin of 2-1.

His background is in business. He worked as a publisher with the Black Press chain and later as a freelance business consultant. He’ll need all that skill as the Conservative government-elect inherits a massive deficit and has laid out a tax-cut strategy that is unlikely to improve the province’s gloomy financial picture any time soon.

Eby, for his part, can only watch from whatever consulting or teaching job he finds and contemplate what might have been if only he had listened less to his ego and more to his conscience.

Doug Firby is an award-winning editorial writer with over four decades of experience working for newspapers, magazines and online publications in Ontario and western Canada. Previously, he served as Editorial Page Editor at the Calgary Herald.