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#BCPoli | Prepare for a Change In Government

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On Tuesday, September 22, 2026, BC NDP Premier David Eby — contrary to the demand of his Cabinet, and members of his caucus — announced a snap election, after meeting with Lieutenant-Governor Wendy Cocchia at Government House in Victoria. That means, Election Day is this Saturday, October 24th, one week after  municipal elections across British Columbia this past Saturday, October 17th. The upcoming election this Saturday is our province’s 44th provincial general election since Confederation.

David Eby’s 2026 B.C. election campaign: 20 major promises

David Eby began his campaign for re-election as British Columbia Premier on September 22, 2026, with a central message: protect jobs, make life more affordable, strengthen public services and build a more self-reliant provincial economy amid the trade dispute with the United States.

Two early announcements were particularly significant. On September 18, before formally calling the election, Eby announced a pause in the planned expansion of the provincial sales tax (PST) to professional services and said future BC Ferries vessels would be built in British Columbia. The PST delay was estimated to save businesses, local governments and others approximately $260 million in 2026–27.

Here, then is a curated list of commitments, based on the BC NDP’s published campaign material and election coverage available as of October 21, 2026.

Taxes, affordability and the cost of living

  • 1. Pause the PST expansion. Delay the planned application of the provincial sales tax to professional services until well after the U.S. trade war ends. The initial pause was announced on September 18;
  • 2. Cut gasoline and diesel prices. Suspend 10 cents per litre of the provincial motor fuel tax, with the NDP projecting that its combined measures could reduce pump prices by as much as 30 cents per litre. Plus, cracking down on excessive fuel prices, by giving the BC Utilities Commission a stronger role in enforcing pricing rules and limiting excessive industry margins;
  • 3. Limit grocery markups on essential foods. Cap retail profit margins on products such as milk, eggs, cheese, butter and poultry. As well as combat algorithmic price discrimination. Strengthen consumer-protection and privacy laws to restrict AI-powered pricing practices that charge consumers different prices based on their personal data;
  • 4. Freeze ICBC insurance rates for another three years. Extend the existing rate freeze, bringing the proposed period of frozen rates to a decade;
  • 5. Ask higher-income earners to contribute more. Increase provincial income-tax rates for the top two tax brackets and establish a new bracket for annual income above $1 million. The NDP says the changes would affect fewer than 4% of income earners and raise approximately $1 billion annually.

Jobs, manufacturing and economic independence

  • 6. Build the next generation of BC Ferries in British Columbia. Require future vessels to be built in Canada, expand the provincial shipbuilding industry and develop a Made-in-B.C. shipbuilding strategy, as well as establish a new B.C. shipyward, working with the federal government, shipbuilders and organized labour to develop a new shipyard, with up to $250 million available provincially to leverage private and federal investment;
  • 7. Create dedicated support for forestry manufacturers. Help tariff-affected mills modernize, produce higher-value products, reduce costs and find customers outside the United States;
  • 8. Prioritize B.C. and Canadian-made products. Introduce purchasing rules for provincial ministries, Crown corporations and health authorities to favour locally and nationally produced goods and materials where viable;
  • 9. Double critical-mineral production and exports, while expanding the capacity of the Port of Prince Rupert, doubling B.C.’s critical-mineral production and exports within five years, strengthening trade links beyond the United States;
  • 10. Help small businesses survive tariffs and wildfires. Continue targeted assistance, including interest-free loans of up to $1 million for eligible businesses through the Small Business Tariff & Wildfire Relief Fund. While also helping small businesses hire young workers. Offer a $5,000 refundable tax credit to eligible small businesses hiring a young person aged 18–30 for their first full-time, 12-month job;
  • 11. Expand food processing in B.C. Make use of eligible Agricultural Land Reserve properties poorly suited to primary food production, while protecting prime farmland and creating local processing jobs.

Health care and seniors

  • 12. Triple recruitment of health-care workers from the United States. Expand efforts to attract American doctors, nurses and other health professionals to work in B.C.;
  • 13. Make shingles vaccination free for everyone aged 50 and older. Expand access to vaccination by removing the cost for eligible adults in this age group.

Housing and child care

  • 14. Turn more empty condominiums into affordable homes. Pursue measures to bring more vacant condo units into use as homes people can afford;
  • 15. Add 7,200 before- and after-school child-care spaces. Expand school-based care to help parents find convenient care for school-aged children. While Introducing a universal child-care fee cap on child-care fees, modelled on Ontario’s approach.

Transportation and public infrastructure

  • 16. Give local residents priority in BC Ferries reservations. Introduce a pilot reserving 12% of advance-booking space for local residents;
  • 17. Increase funding for public transit. Add $40 million annually to BC Transit funding to expand bus service, improve connections between communities, while delivering rapid bus transit in Metro Vancouver, making seniors’ bus passes free for low-income seniors and extending free transit passes to an estimated 350,000 eligible seniors across B.C.;
  • 18. Double provincial funding for public libraries. Permanently increase annual provincial library funding from $14 million to $28 million.

Environment, public safety and community support

  • 19. Protect more of B.C.’s land and water. Continue the commitment to protect 30% of the province’s land and water by 2030. Plus, fund climate action through new resource revenues. Dedicate a portion of provincial revenue from new oil and gas development to climate programs, beginning with a proposed $50-million investment;
  • 20. Expand involuntary care options in the Okanagan. Advance plans to increase access to involuntary mental-health and addiction treatment for people who meet the applicable criteria. Also, strengthen protections against gangs, guns and extortion. Make organized crime and extortion a campaign priority, with additional measures aimed at protecting communities and businesses.

For all of the commitments made to the citizens of British Columbia by the David Eby BC NDP government seeking re-election, in all of the polls published in the final week of the election campaign, it would seem David Eby is on his way to ignominious defeat this upcoming Saturday evening.

With each passing day the polls and the projected seat count for what now appears to be the outgoing British Columbia New Democratic government only worsens.

Below you will find the results of intensive polling conducted in all 93 riding across British Columbia. First up, focusing mainly on Metro Vancouver.

Not bad for the BC NDP: 35 NDP; 2 Greens; 12 Conservatives. Next up: the Interior.

The entire rest of the province is turning blue. There are few, if any, safe seats for David Eby’s BC NPD outside of the Metro Vancouver region, with a handful of seats on Vancouver Island, and one on the Sunshine Coast.

The only question that remains is: what will David Eby do on Election Night? Speculation is that if the election is a rout, and Mr. Eby’s party is only able to secure 29 or so seats — a possible outcome according to internal polls conducted by the Conservative Party of British Columbia — Mr. Eby will resign as leader of the BC NPD on Election Night.

VanRamblings would prefer that Mr. Eby tender his resignation in the new year.

Prior to calling the snap election, David Eby made a commitment to the members of his Cabinet and caucus: if he were to win anything less than a comfortable majority on Election Night, he would resign the leadership of the BC NDP this upcoming late winter / early spring, in order that a New Democratic Party leadership contest might be called by the party brass. Chances are the leadership convention would occur in late March, or early April, when a new leader of the party would be chosen by the party membership.

The heir apparent party membership wants: Brad West, the popular three-term Mayor of Port Coquitlam, former Executive Assistant to BC NDP Minister Mike Farnworth and a former communications and political action co-ordinator for the United Steelworkers (USW) union in B.C. There is little doubt that Ravi Kahlon and Christine Boyle would mount effective, well-run, well-financed campaigns for the party leadership, as well.

With the help of her brother-in-law Avi Lewis, the leader of the federal NDP, there is little doubt that Ms. Boyle and her backers and supporters would mount a strong campaign. Not to mention which, Dr. Cailey Lynch, the Premier’s better half, would support a run by Christine Boyle to ascend to the leadership.

Ravi Kahlon — one of the most reliable and most competent Ministers in the BC NDP government this past 9+ years — wants the leadership, feels he is owed the leadership of the party so badly that he can almost taste it.

What does a government led by Conservative Party of British Columbia “interim” leader Lorne Doerkson mean for the people of British Columbia? In a word: chaos.

Lorne Doerkson is not the leader of the Conservative Party of British Columbia, he is only the “interim” leader of the party, even if he becomes the Premier.

The constitution of B.C.’s Conservative party requires a leadership contest be held to elect their leader.

The Conservative Party’s Board of Directors have been attempting to convince elected members not to run against Mr. Doerkson, such that he would be acclaimed leader.

If you believe that is a likely scenario, we have a bridge we’d like to sell you, cheap.

You just know the whack job / far right / conspiracy theorist / freedom convoy element in the party will run one of their elected members for the leadership, and mount a campaign to have her or him become the 44th Premier of the province of British Columbia.

So, all the time that a Premier Doerkson should be attempting to put a government into place, rather than focus on the tasks at hand, he’d be traveling across the province during the first five weeks of his new administration, attempting to keep the job British Columbians elected him to.

Only in the wild west of B.C. politics could such a disastrous scenario unfold.

#BCPoli | Humane, Innovative Housing Policy Delivered by British Columbia and Ottawa

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Prime Minister Mark Carney held a press conference in Vancouver alongside British Columbia Premier David Eby on June 25, announcing innovative measures to create affordable housing in B.C.  

The June 25th announcement by Mark Carney on behalf of the federal government, and British Columbia Premier David Eby should have been a triumph.

Instead, it became a communications debacle.

When Prime Minister Mark Carney stood alongside federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson, B.C. Premier David Eby and B.C. Housing Minister Christine Boyle to announce that the federal and provincial governments would work together to purchase approximately 2,200 unsold condominiums and convert them into rent-to-own housing, the promise was immediately overshadowed by confusion.

The questions that came were entirely predictable.

  • Where were these condominiums?
  • Who owned them?
  • Would taxpayers be paying full market value?
  • Would they be located in Metro Vancouver, where housing shortages are most acute?

Neither Mr. Carney nor Mr. Eby provided answers during their announcement.

Instead of controlling the narrative, the governments allowed a vacuum to develop, one that was quickly filled by speculation, criticism and political attacks. Journalists demanded details that were not forthcoming, while federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre seized upon the uncertainty as evidence that the announcement was little more than political theatre.

Federal Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks out against the federal government’s proposal to purchase vacant condos, during a town hall meeting in Duncan, B.C.  

It was, without question, one of the poorest communications roll-outs either the Carney government or the Eby government has experienced.

And yet, buried beneath the muddled messaging was an idea that deserves considerably more attention than it has received.

In the days following the announcement, Mr. Eby provided the missing details.

Contrary to widespread assumptions, the condominiums would not be concentrated in Metro Vancouver, or even in British Columbia’s largest urban centres. Rather, they would largely be acquired in smaller communities throughout the province where residential developments have stalled or failed altogether.

Many of these homes would be what the real estate industry describes as “distressed properties.”

These are condominiums sold under unfavourable financial circumstances because developers have encountered severe financial difficulties, entered receivership, declared bankruptcy or been forced into foreclosure, with licensed insolvency trustees disposing of assets well below their original market value.

Such circumstances create unusual opportunities for public acquisition.

Rather than paying retail prices, governments can often acquire these units at discounts ranging from 15% to 35% below market value.

Completed, distressed vacant condo building ready for sale below market value in Grand Forks, B.C.

Communities such as Grand Forks, and other smaller centres throughout the Okanagan, the Kootenays and Vancouver Island — including Duncan, Port Alberni and Campbell River — contain developments that fit this description.

These are not speculative purchases. They are existing homes. Completed homes. Vacant homes. Homes waiting for occupants.

That distinction matters enormously.

A typical condo construction timeline spans 2.5 to 5 years from initial sales launch to final move-in, a timeline that can stretch even longer due to complex excavation, permitting, and labour demands.

Governments have become accustomed to announcing ambitious affordable housing projects that require years of planning, environmental reviews, permitting, financing and construction before a family receives keys to a front door.

Typically, that timeline stretches three to four years, often longer.

Premier David Eby has argued that purchasing distressed condominium developments offers a dramatically different proposition.

  • The homes already exist;
  • The infrastructure is already built;
  • Water, sewer, electrical service and roads are already in place;
  • Families could move in almost immediately;
  • The economics are equally compelling.

Constructing affordable rental housing has become extraordinarily expensive. Labour shortages, escalating material costs, financing expenses and municipal development charges have pushed construction costs to unprecedented levels.

Acquiring completed condominiums at significant discounts represents substantially better value for taxpayers while simultaneously rescuing developments that otherwise risk remaining empty for years.

The most important aspect of this initiative has received the least attention.

Behind every vacant condominium sits the possibility of a family whose life could be transformed. Not every homeless family sleeps on sidewalks. Many spend months couch surfing between relatives and friends. Some move weekly from one borrowed bedroom to another. Others sleep in aging recreational vehicles parked wherever municipal bylaws permit. Still others live in automobiles, desperately trying to shield children from the instability surrounding them.

For these families, housing is not merely shelter. Housing restores routine. It restores childhood. It restores educational stability, better physical health and improved mental health. It restores dignity.

The proposed rent-to-own model carries particular promise because it offers something beyond secure tenancy. It offers ownership.

Families who have spent years believing home ownership had become permanently unattainable may finally possess a realistic pathway toward building equity and long-term financial security. That possibility should not be underestimated.

If governments can purchase distressed condo developments substantially below replacement cost, rapidly convert them into affordable rent-to-own housing, and provide stable homes for thousands of families who otherwise face years of uncertainty, then taxpayers receive genuine value, while vulnerable British Columbians receive something infinitely more important than political messaging.

They receive hope.

In an age when political discourse increasingly rewards outrage over solutions, this initiative reminds us that governing still matters. It reminds us that budgets are, ultimately, moral documents reflecting the choices society makes about who deserves opportunity and who deserves security. Governments exist not merely to balance ledgers or score partisan victories, but to solve problems that markets alone cannot resolve. Housing is one of those problems.

We live in anxious times, when too many families have begun to wonder whether stability itself has become a luxury. Against uncertainty, both the B.C. and federal governments are attempting — however imperfectly — to meet the moment.

If vacant homes become places where children sleep safely, parents regain hope, and families begin building lives instead of merely surviving them, then history will remember not the fumbling announcement, but the quiet dignity of thousands of front doors opening onto a better future.

#BCPoli | Good-bye John Rustad We Hardly Knew Ya

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Buh-bye, so long, adios: John Rustad, “interim leader” of the Conservative Party of British Columbia

One year from today John Rustad will no longer lead the B.C. Conservative Party.

How to explain VanRamblings’ late 2025 B.C. Conservative leadership projection?

  • B.C. Conservative Party infighting. In his interview with This is Vancolour’s Mo Amir, former BC NDP Premier Glen Clark referred to 20 of the newly-elected B.C. Conservative Party MLAs as “whack jobs” — this adjudication arising from a series of racist, misogynist, homophobic QAnon conspiracy theorist comments made by these, now, sitting B.C. Conservative Party members of the B.C. Legislature.

    From what VanRamblings’ sources tell us, these 20 newly-minted B.C. Conservative MLAs are far from happy with their leader, John Rustad, for having roundly denounced several of their number during the course of the recent provincial election campaign. VanRamblings is told there is a movement afoot to remove Rustad as leader, in favour of a member of the QAnon conspiracy theorist contingent who more rightly align with their “the whole system is rigged and oughta be brought down” far right, People’s Party of Canada, anti-vaxx, Freedom Convoy-loving “philosophy”.

Meanwhile, Premier Eby has drawn what he calls a “bright line”, stating that his NDP government will refuse to work with newly-elected B.C. Conservative MLAs who have expressed “offensive” views on racial and other matters.

Vaughn Palmer, in The Vancouver Sun, has called the …

 “Bright-line test a proverbial line in the sand. It establishes a clearcut, easily recognizable boundary between the right and the wrong, the good and the bad, the pure and the tainted.”

Eby singled out Brent Chapman, newly-elected B.C. Conservative MLA for Surrey South, and author of some deeply offensive social media posts in past years.

“Brent Chapman (is) a hateful man promoting hate and racism in our province,” Eby told host Vijay Saini of CJCN radio last week. “We have a very bright line around that and it is a non-starter for us. We need to fight hate and racism every day. So there are definitely restrictions on our willingness to work with the Conservative party.”

The BC NDP leader has suggested that B.C. Democrats are preparing a list of Conservatives whose utterances have consigned them to the dark side of the line.

“I’ve seen them speaking out with concern on issues that I share concern about — open racism from Conservative candidates, open homophobia, anti-Muslim sentiment, anti-woman sentiment — and those are bright lines. That is non-negotiable for us.”

Premier Eby has created a ‘no win’ situation for B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad: defend his MLAs who have expressed intolerant and hateful views, or denounce them. Smart, divisive NDP politics, set to create much trouble for Rustad.

Elenore Sturko celebrating her B.C. United Party by-election win in 2022, with Kevin Falcon.

  • Elenore Sturko. VanRamblings has been told by our B.C. Conservative Party sources that former B.C. United MLA for Surrey South, now the newly-minted B.C. Conservative MLA representing the riding of Surrey-Cloverdale has formed an exploratory committee to challenge John Rustad for leadership of the Conservative Party of British Columbia. Elenore Sturko: thy name is ambition at all costs, the person in which such picayune considerations such as loyalty will never be vested. Just ask former B.C. United Party leader Kevin Falcon; he’s got a story or two to tell ya.

And, finally, why John Rustad won’t be the leader of the Conservative Party of British Columbia, and His Majesty’s loyal Opposition, twelve months from now.

The venerable and exclusive Vancouver Club, on West Hastings in Vancouver.

  • Powers that be who rule our province. The same group of folks who just weeks ago — billionaire developers, and their ilk — convinced, under threat, B.C. United leader Kevin Falcon to fold his and his B.C. United tent in favour of supporting John Rustad’s far right B.C. Conservative Party — never for a moment wanting to see the conspiracy theory amenable Rustad continue on as B.C. Conservative Party leader should he “lose” the election — even as you read this, are meeting behind closed doors deep within the inner sanctum of The Vancouver Club, developing plans to oust John Rustad as B.C. Conservative Party leader — as they did with then B.C. Liberal leader Gordon Wilson, in favour of their hand-picked choice and oh-so-amenable, Gordon Campbell — to be replaced by Ms. Sturko, or Brad West or another potential B.C. Conservative Party leader, who would be acquiescent to their entreaties, a leader not wedded to conspiracy theories, someone more acceptable to the general populace.

So there you have it.

In the face of the chaos that will be wrought in the United States with the (re) election of Donald Trump as President, in British Columbia some degree of sanity will prevail, with the Nuremberg 2.0-compliant John Rustad set to be removed as B.C. Conservative Party leader, in favour of someone more balanced and palatable to a broad swath of the British Columbia electorate. With David Eby at the helm of a progressive British Columbia New Democratic Party, we can look forward to enjoying a government committed to empowering women, empowering members of our Indigenous community, and building the economy, an oasis of political sanity in this crazy old world of ours where stability, in British Columbia, is our friend.