Tag Archives: david eby

#BCPoli | Premier David Eby’s 2nd Worst Nightmare Unfolding

#CdnPoli | Canadian Politics, BC Politics, BC Votes 2024, Politics, , , , , , , , , ,


Mario Canseco’s Research Co poll released on January 31, 2024 places the BC NDP in first place

Premier David Eby’s second worst nightmare continues to unfold less than nine months before the 2024 British Columbia provincial election.

David Eby’s worst nightmare, of course, would be a repeat of the 2001 British Columbia election, when voters went to the polls, leaving only two seats from the NDP majority government that held power from 1991 through 2001. From 2001 through 2005, Joy McPhail & Jenny Kwan held the fort for B.C.’s New Democratic Party. Failure on that scale in 2024 would be unimaginably devastating.

In fact, there is a 2001 provincial election scenario that is, at present, unfolding in British Columbia, but it is a redux version of 2001, where the B.C. New Democratic Party has gained the confidence and largesse of British Columbia voters — seeming to give David Eby, and the BC NDP, an overwhelming majority — and where the renamed name B.C. Liberal Party — now inaptly named, B.C. United — look to be wiped out as a political force in our province, as they seem set to retain a mere six seats in the Legislature, in a house where 93 Members of the Legislature will sit.

Below, we’ll get to why the above scenario is Premier Eby’s 2nd worst nightmare.


Sonia Furstenau, Green Party of British Columbia leader, changing ridings before the 2024 election

On the last day of January 2024, Sonia Furstenau announced to the world that she is giving up on British Columbia politics, that she’s frustrated, fed up, worn out, is devastated that British Columbians have failed to support her tenure as leader of the Green Party of B.C.,  her integrity, her hard work and that of her Green Party colleague, Adam Olsen, and that a very centrist British Columbia electorate have thrown their support to a centrist British Columbia New Democratic Party under the leadership of David Eby, and cast her and her Green Party of British Columbia aside, and no longer want her in place to challenge a B.C. NDP government.

Did Sonia Furstenau voice the (fictional) concerns raised above, yesterday?

No. But she might as well have.


Beacon Hill Park, in Victoria

For, you see, Ms. Furstenau announced Wednesday that in the upcoming 2024 provincial election, rather than run again in the very safe Green Party supporting riding of Cowichan Valley, which she has held comfortably since 2016, instead Ms. Furstenau has chosen to devastate her Green Party supporters and the voting electorate in the Cowichan Valley, by announcing that come this autumn, she will run for office in the riding of Victoria-Beacon Hill — perhaps the safest NDP seat in the province — where she will challenge popular incumbent, Grace Lore, the current Minister of Children and Family Development in the David Eby government.

Note should be made that due to redistribution, Ms. Furstenau’s riding was divided in half, statistically giving the B.C. NDP a three-to-one advantage in the new ridings should she decide to run in either of the two new ridings. Pulling out of the political fray in the Cowichan Valley where she believes she cannot win, in favour of certain defeat in Victora-Beacon Hill, to VanRamblings seems to be a Hobson’s choice.

The above said, we wish Ms. Furstenau well in her political “retirement”, because most assuredly she will not win re-election come this Saturday, October 19th.

VanRamblings imagines after clearing her office she will take some time off, vacationing with her husband, perhaps returning in the spring to supply teach in her Cowichan Valley school district, where the administration will be over the moon to have her back in the fold, given the dire shortage of teachers in our province.


Vancouver Island University, entrance to the Cowichan campus administration office

Returning to teaching will also afford Ms. Furstenau to put in the time necessary to raise her pension to 80% of her annual average teachers’ salary of $90,000+ — whether she resumes her teaching career in the Cowichan Valley, or her “new home” in British Columbia’s capital city, where she would be closer to family.


The University of Victoria

Upon retirement at age 65, Ms. Furstenau will live in comfort financially, her home paid off, her teachers’ pension  paying handsomely, supplemented by her Member of the Legislature / leader of the Green Party of BC provincial government pension. In addition, we also expect Vancouver Island University’s Cowichan campus, or should Ms. Furstenau remains in Victoria, the University of Victoria will want to bring her on staff as an instructor, to conduct an evening class or two.

If seeing his current 57-member strong New Democratic Party caucus reduced to two seats, as was the cataclysmic case in 2001, is the nightmare electoral scenario that David Eby fears most (an event unlikely to unfold), as we’ve written previously, securing 80 seats in the Legislature is certainly a nightmare electoral October 19th scenario that our Premier is hoping against hope will not unfold.

Why? As we’ve written previously, and will write again many times in the months to come: with 57 seats in the Legislature, including the Premier’s own Vancouver Point Grey riding seat, British Columbia’s beloved, soon-to-be-a-father for the third time (come June!), the Premier is perfectly content with 57 seats, a comfortable majority, just the right number of seats in the House to portion out Ministers, Parliamentary Secretary and House Speaker jobs,  keep his caucus members busy, keeping them happy, as well, as this “extra work” affords each of the members of the NPD caucus additional salary to their $115,045.93 annual MLA compensation.

Much more than a 57-seat win, and the Premier faces undesired “trouble”, cuz there are no more additional, well-paying jobs for him to give out, leaving the “extra NDP MLAs” largely disenfranchised, and at loose ends with themselves.

Next thing you know, a rump group of B.C. Dippers will hive off from the provincial party to form their own — say, five member, environmentally-minded, opposed to LNG and fracking — B.C. political party, affording them the “extra monies” they heretofore had been denied. Politics, lemme tell ya, it ain’t for the faint of heart.


Kevin Falcon, leader of B.C. United, and decidedly on the right, B.C. Conservative leader, John Rustad

Politically in British Columbia, we seem to be living in a redux period.

In 1991, as “Premier” Rita Johnson — when disgraced Socred Premier Bill Vander Zalm  resigned from office, the party chose Ms. Johnson as their leader, and Premier — championed the Social Credit party during that year’s provincial election, she not only lost government and 47  legislative seats, the Social Credit Party came in a distant third, the Social Credit Party finis / the Socreds dead, far from phoenix-like, after nearly 41 years in power, the party wiped out, and gone forever.

Once the cabal who run this province removed 1991’s Liberal leader, Gordon Wilson — who secured 17 seats for the B.C. Liberals, a revived B.C. Liberal party became the political standard-bearer for our province’s capitalist forces, an all-too-willing Gordon Campbell made leader, who in 2001 went on to become Premier.


Global BC’s Richard Zussman reports on B.C. United leader Kevin Falcon + the Greens’ Sonia Furstenau

Kevin Falcon, once a well-thought-of activist Minister in the Gordon Campbell government, will soon become the undertaker for the B.C. Liberal renamed B.C United Party, as this capitalist, free market party — whatever it’s name — will soon be but a fading memory on the political landscape of British Columbia provincial politics.


British Columbia’s Legislative Assembly

As for B.C. Conservative Party leader, John Rustad, as the far right gains power across the globe — in Canada, that would be federal Conservative Party leader, Pierre “The Destroyer” Poilievre (“Canada is broken. It’s all Justin Trudeau’s fault,”), as well as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, and New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs — steps gingerly into the political vacuum left by a mortally wounded B.C. United Party, Rustad would seem to be on track to become, perhaps, the Leader of Her Majesty’s official loyal Opposition, in the post election, post October next session of the British Columbia Legislature.

#SaveOurParkBoard | The Saga of the Abolition of Vancouver’s Elected Park Board Continues

#VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Environment, Food & Health, Park Board, Politics, Vancouver, , , , , ,

Despair reigns across our land, as the inexorable move towards the dissolution of an independent, elected Park Board proceeds relentlessly, calamitously forward.

In today’s VanRamblings post, we’ll attempt to reason why Mayor Ken Sim and his super majority ABC Vancouver team of City Councillors arrived at the decision to eliminate the 133-year-old Vancouver Park Board, the role the administration of the David Eby government will play, why the provincial government supports the seemingly arbitrary initiative of the Mayor, and why we believe that it is inevitable that in months, Vancouver’s beloved, elected Park Board will fade into history.

On an episode of the Air Quotes Media podcast, Hotel Pacifico, that aired just before Christmas, former Vancouver City Councillor / Chief of Staff to Premier John Horgan , Geoff Meggs, posited that the move to abolish the Vancouver Park Board was part of a dastardly plot by B.C. United Party leader Kevin Falcon.

Apparently, Mr. Falcon had convinced the Mayor and his ABC Vancouver Councillors — all of whom are members and supporters of B.C. United — that a move to eliminate the elected Park Board would create discord within David Eby’s New Democratic Party caucus, heading into this year’s October 19th provincial election.



Vancouver’s 9 duly-elected New Democrat Party Members of the Legislature in Victoria

Given the likelihood many in the NDP caucus would be opposed to the Mayor’s initiative to have the provincial government amend the Vancouver Charter to allow the dissolution of an elected Park Board — a move that could jeopardize the re-election chances of many of the New Democratic Party government’s Vancouver-based members of the legislature — working hand in hand, Kevin Falcon and Ken Sim devised a plan to turn the tables on the re-election chances of Vancouver’s NDP MLA’s, which very much includes Premier David Eby himself, who is in his 11th year as the elected representative in the riding of Vancouver Point Grey.


Geoff Meggs, Vancouver City Councillor 2008 – 2017 | Chief of Staff to Premier John Horgan, 2017 – 2022

Alas. As much as VanRamblings enjoys a good conspiracy theory, in point of fact, privately, Mr. Meggs was telling his intimates that he had proposed the Kevin Falcon “theory” arising from his concern that, given the polling that has the NDP riding high in the polls and seemingly undefeatable, he is concerned that NDP supporters very well may not volunteer at their MLA’s campaign offices once the writ is dropped this upcoming September, and further that New Democratic Party voters will stay home, and not vote at the advance polls or cast a ballot on election day.

Every vote counts. New Democratic Party supporters will have to work as hard as ever in the lead up to, and during the course of British Columbia’s 43rd provincial election, if we wish to ensure the re-election of the David Eby NDP government.


Mayor Ken Sim announces Park Board transition working group

The story of the decision of the Ken Sim-led majority ABC Vancouver administration to eliminate Vancouver’s independent, elected Park Board goes back to March of last year, when Premier David Eby made a proposal to Vancouver’s Mayor to move B.C. Place from its current home adjacent to Rogers Arena to Hastings Park.

While it is true that David Eby has stated that it is probable his government will spend between $300 and $400 million dollars on a renovation of B.C. Place to meet the requirements of the bodies bringing the Invictus Games to British Columbia in 2025, and the FIFA World Cup to Vancouver in 2026, in fact reliable sources have told VanRamblings that the long term plans for B.C. Place involves moving the aging stadium to Hastings Park, over which the City of Vancouver has jurisdiction.

As you might well expect, development and growth — and an expansion of our transit system — is at the heart of the decision by the Premier.

In addition, in eliminating the independent, elected Park Board, ABC Vancouver’s financial backers’ fondest wishes will be realized, as whole tracts of previous park / open green space will be available for development, to build, build, build …

And, of course, the mega-developer Aquilini family is very much involved, as well.

Here’s the plan: a David Eby government would work closely with the members of Vancouver City Council, and the Aquilini development corporation, to redevelop the B.C. Place site where, conceivably, the 7 hectare / 17-acre site would become home to three or more 70-to-95 storey towers in a newly designated “downtown village”, providing more than 3,000 residential condominium units in what will soon become, as planned, the heart of the downtown core of Vancouver.

The monies derived from the sale of the 3,000 luxury condominium units — in which the government would co-develop the B.C. Place site with the Aqualini family, where the completed condominium units would sell for up to $125 million on the top floors, many of the condominium units sold offshore, with the provincial government realizing billions of dollars in profit — would not only pay for the construction of a new stadium on the race track grounds at Hastings Park — a covenant prevents the construction of housing at Hastings Park, but not a sports facility — but for a new light rail system, as well, from Vancouver’s city core, along Hastings, down Renfrew to McGill / Hastings Park,  and over to the North Shore.

ABC Vancouver Mayoral candidate Ken Sim pledged support for a North Shore rapid transit line less than two weeks before the 2022 Vancouver civic election.

Late last year, on October 4, 2023, Vancouver City Council endorsed making a formal request to TransLink’s Mayors’ Council to perform a rapid transit study of Hastings Street between downtown Vancouver and Hastings Park /PNE. Following up on his pre-election pledge to support rapid transit to the North Shore, newly-elected Mayor Ken Sim met with North Shore Mayors last February to re-state and reinforce the pledge he had made during his 2022 campaign to support a long-sought-after rapid transit line to the North Shore.


Park Board transition working group: Catherine Evans, Gregor Young, Jordan Nijjar, Shauna Wilton, Jennifer Wood

The person on the left in the photo above is Catherine Evans, former Library Board Chair, Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioner, most recently the senior constituency assistant in federal MP Joyce Murray’s Vancouver Quadra office, and although Ms. Evans is a card carrying member of the federal Liberal Party,  provincially she is a staunch supporter of David Eby, and his NDP administration in Victoria.

In the past, Catherine Evans has worked on David’s Eby’s campaigns for office and, in fact, on E-Day, while working in Mr. Eby’s campaign office, has been VanRamblings’ no nonsense Get Out The Vote “boss”.

A story — a digression and and an aside — to help explain why Catherine Evans has joined Mayor Ken Sim’s Park Board Transition Working Group.


George Puil, 14 years as a Park Board Commissioner, then for 26 years, a Vancouver City Councillor

In 2001, B.C. Liberal leader Gordon Campbell won an overwhelming victory at the polls, securing 77 of 79 seats in the Legislature, leaving the NDP with two seats: Joy McPhail in Vancouver Hastings, and Jenny Kwan in Vancouver Mount Pleasant.

As is always the case with a change of government, there are 5,000 or more positions to be filled by the winning party’s supporters, with positions on college and university boards, regulatory authorities, as well as Crown agencies and commissions, and much more. Having retired from his job as an educator at Kitsilano Secondary School, and after 40 years in elected office, Mr. Puil — a man of experience, and a mentor to Gordon Campbell — following his ignominious defeat at the polls in the 2002 Vancouver municipal election, found himself at loose ends.

Within six months of taking office, Premier Gordon Campbell appointed his good friend George Puil to three regulatory bodies in his government, not requiring too much from Mr. Puil in respect of time, certainly much less time than had long been the case when Mr. Puil  sat as a Vancouver City Councillor. Annual compensation for these “out of the public eye” regulatory bodies came in at $250,000, a pretty penny that came in addition to Mr. Puil’s healthy teachers’ pension.

Catherine Evans, one of the loveliest persons of VanRamblings’ acquaintance

As Ms. Evans lives in VanRamblings neighbourhood, we run across one another frequently, and chat volubly and at length about the state of the world, and more often than not federal politics (as it happens, VanRamblings is a Justin Trudeau fan).

If you know David Eby, you know that he likes to have “his people” in place — thus, Ms. Evans’ placement on Mayor Sim’s Park Board transition working group. David Eby wants a close eye kept on the machinations of that contentious Park Board working group.

In our various conversations, Ms. Evans has made it clear — arising from a tragic personal circumstance — that she wants out of politics, has no interest in seeking political office, and would find solace and peace travelling with her husband to various locales across the globe, far away from the political maelstrom.

Why has Catherine Evans joined Mayor Ken Sim’s Park Board transition working group? Quite simply, because her good friend David Eby asked her to.

To know Catherine Evans — who is exceptionally bright, one of the strongest, most principled and hardest working women we know — is to know that her role as a low key change maker for the better is how she brings herself to the world.

Enter David Eby, who should he be re-elected to government in October, will set as a priority the appointment of his confidante Catherine Evans to the provincial bodies of her choice, where she can make a difference, out of the public eye, compensated fairly for her contribution, and for her many many gifts.

The word VanRamblings is hearing out of Victoria is that David Eby will not move forward this spring on the request of ABC Vancouver to amend the Vancouver Charter, to eliminate an independent, elected Vancouver Park Board.

Which means that those of us who love the Vancouver Park Board, live Park Board deep in our soul, and cherish Park Board, although we have our work cut out for us this next year, we may have an outside chance of moving the David Eby government away from making the fatal decision to dissolve the Vancouver Park Board.

#SaveOurParkBoard | Council Moves to Abolish Elected Park Board

#VanElxn 2022, #VanPoli Civic Politics, News, Park Board, Politics, , , ,

On Wednesday, December 13th, the eight members of the elected majority on the ABC Vancouver City Council — led by Mayor Ken Sim — voted unanimously to a eliminate an elected Vancouver Park Board, the most successful elected Park Board on the continent which, dating back to its creation in 1889, has overseen the growth of a parks system in the City of Vancouver that is the envy of the world.

In the coming days weeks, months and years, VanRamblings will explore why this electoral abomination occurred, what this wrong-headed decision means electorally for the elected Councillors who comprise the “super majority” ABC Vancouver holds at City Council, and what impact the decision of Council has had and will have on the provincial government led by Premier David Eby — whose government is compelled to review and entertain the motion passed by Vancouver City Council requesting that the government enact the necessary change to the Vancouver Charter that would abolish the elected Park Board.

As Vancouver City Councillor Christine Boyle states in her tweet above, ABC Vancouver did not run on a promise to eliminate the elected Vancouver Park Board. From a July 28, 2022 article written by CBC civic affairs reporter Justin McElroy …

The Vancouver mayoral candidate who promised to get rid of the city’s independent park board is now saying he’d like to keep it.

“Vancouverites deserve well run parks now. We can’t wait three to four years to make an administrative change,” said A Better City (ABC) mayoral candidate Ken Sim, who announced his party’s park board candidates and platform Thursday morning.

The candidates are Brennan Bastyovanszky, Laura Christensen, Angela Haer, Scott Jensen, Marie-Claire Howard and Jas Virdi.

They will be running on a platform of repairing aging infrastructure, doing a financial audit of the park board, improving the Stanley Park bike lane, and making permanent the pilot allowing drinking in parks, expanding it to all major parks and starting a separate pilot for drinking at beaches.

A Done Deal | Council Votes to Eliminate Elected Vancouver Park Board


Vancouver Park Board Commissioner at Vancouver City Hall, holding her new, month old baby

A statement from Laura Christensen, Vancouver Park Board Commissioner …

Click on this link to hear duly elected (now former) ABC Vancouver Park Board Commissioner Laura Christensen address the whole of Vancouver City Council on December 13, 2023 —  including her ABC Council running mates —  on the initiative of the political party she ran with to eliminate the elected Vancouver Park Board.


Brennan Bastyovanszky, elected chair of the Vancouver Park Board, urged Mayor Ken Sim and Councillors, Wednesday, December 13, 2023 not to begin the process to abolish the elected Park Board

In point of fact, 82 members of the Vancouver public —  including more than 20 past, elected Park Board Commissioners, as well as dozens of citizens who have appeared before the Vancouver Park Board to argue their case in respect of Vancouver’s parks and recreation centres —  spoke passionately to the members of Vancouver City Council, to protect “the last bastion of civic democracy in the Metro Vancouver region, and a cherished institution that has made Vancouver not only the parks capital of North America, but the envy of the world, across our globe.”

Next week, VanRamblings will set about to refute the notion espoused by Mayor Ken Sim that the Vancouver Park Board is “broken” or the — forgive us for saying so, the ludicrous, and utterly unsupportable — notion that there are “millions in savings” to be had by eliminating the elected Vancouver Park Board, by turning over the responsibility of governance to an already over-extended and far-too-busy-by-half Vancouver City Council, wherein VanRamblings will refute the (unintended) disinformation contained in Emily Lazatin’s Global BC news report on the proposal by Vancouver City Council to abolish Vancouver’s elected Park Board.

Make no mistake, no matter what the speakers had to say who presented to Vancouver City Council on preserving an elected Vancouver Park Board, no matter how reasoned their arguments, no matter how articulate and passionate their presentation,  ABC Vancouver Councillors had made their minds up well in advance of hearing speakers in Council chambers, arising from an imposed caucus “solidarity” issued by the Mayor’s office directing ABC Councillors to eliminate the elected Park Board — note should be made that ABC Councillors were not even informed of the change of direction in respect of the elected Park Board by Mayor Ken Sim prior to his announcement in the press to abolish the elected Park Board — it was a “done deal”, no matter the information presented to ABC Vancouver  Councillors.

The difference between the Vancouver Park Board and Vancouver City Council?

At the Vancouver Park Board table, members of the public can change the mind of Park Board Commissioners, and affect the direction and priorities of Park Board — on Wednesday, VanRamblings will present two cogent examples of the public effecting a meaningful policy change at Park Board — whereas at Vancouver City Hall, more often than not, the minds of Councillors have been made up long in advance of hearing from the public. Autocracy reigns at Vancouver City Hall.

Democracy, on the other hand, reigns long at the Vancouver Park Board table.

Click / tap on the graphic above to sign  the Save Our Park Board Petition started by Sarah Blyth

Save Our Park Board GoFundMe Display Campaign
Click / tap on the graphic above to donate to the Save Our Park Board GoFundMe display campaign

#BCPoli | David Robert Patrick Eby, 37th Premier of British Columbia

#CdnPoli | Canadian Politics, BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, , , , , ,

As of today, Friday, November 18, 2022, David Eby becomes the 37th Premier of the Province of British Columbia. Glad tidings for our province, and glad tidings for the British Columbia New Democratic Party, B.C.’s current sitting government.

David Eby, the duly elected three-term Member of the Legislature, who since his election to Victoria in 2013, has more than ably represented his many grateful constituents who reside in his Vancouver Point-Grey riding, as a community activist extraordinaire, and an on the ground advocate for any constituent who walks through the doors of his constituency office located on West Broadway just west of Macdonald, in the heart of the welcoming westside Kitsilano neighbourhood.

David Eby and David Eby alone will salvage a somewhat long in the tooth BC New Democratic government, as a steady as she goes but decidedly activist Premier intent on getting things done for all British Columbians, resident in the North, throughout the Interior, on Vancouver Island & across B.C.’s urban metropolises.

David Eby may well be the most sympathetic and authentic political figure this province has ever seen — just you wait and see — and as such represents not just the great hope of the BC NDP to retain government past the 2024 provincial election, but the great hope for all British Columbians who, over the next 24 months, will come to cherish David Eby as the once-in-a-generation inspirational leader who will lead our province through the certain-to-be challenging times ahead.

Premier David Eby has his work cut out for him, but from all reports he’s going to hit the ground running.

In an October 7, 2022 column in The Vancouver Sun, arising from an extensive poll by Angus Reid gauging the rate of satisfaction British Columbians felt for the incumbent John Horgan government, columnist Vaughn Palmer wrote …

“An opinion poll this week from the Angus Reid institute indicated the public is far from content with the NDP’s handling of major issues. On homelessness, the opioid crisis, labour shortages and seniors care — the verdict was negative: “poor/very poor job.”

Those responding to the survey gave the NDP government a 73% negative rating on health care, a 77% negative on dealing with the cost of living, and an 85% negative rating for its handling of housing affordability.

New Democrats should be worried about what happens when Premier John Horgan, the most popular British Columbia leader in decades, exits the Premier’s office, leaving behind only public discontent over how the government has been handling the major issues.”

Then Premier-designate David Eby’s response to the Angus Reid poll, and Mr. Palmer’s concerning column in The Vancouver Sun?


Premier David Eby releases 100-day plan for B.C. housing, health & safety

An article in the Canadian Press reads: “The B.C. New Democrats’ newly minted leader and Premier is promising “significant action” to bolster the province’s affordable housing, health-care system, public safety and environmental policies.”

At a press conference, David Eby rolled out his plans for his first 100 days.

“I’m setting down a marker today on these priorities for our government: housing, health care, the environment, public safety,” he said at a news conference.

“At the end of those 100 days, you will have seen announcements (and) activity from a government focused on delivering results for British Columbians that set out the groundwork for how, in the next two years, we are going to deliver significant change for British Columbians.”

Eby campaigned for leader on a housing plan that includes a $500-million fund to provide grants to non-profits & First Nations to buy rental properties, pledging to fast-track approvals & construction of multi-family housing projects.

On the health-care front, Premier Eby said his government will be looking at the process used to assess people with international credentials “to get them working as quickly as possible” to address a dire need in the health system.

When it comes to concerns over public safety, Premier Eby said there are issues where the criminal justice system is not responding they way it needs to.

“You will see action from our government on this issue. But what you will see is action that actually addresses the core issue that is causing so much chaos in communities: the issues of mental health, addiction, homelessness, and the need to intervene and break the cycle that people are involved in,” he said.

Mr. Eby is also promising to redirect fossil fuel subsidies to clean energy.

“British Columbians are really clear, we cannot continue to subsidize fossil fuels and expect clean energy to manifest somehow. We cannot continue to expand fossil fuel infrastructure and hit our climate goals,” he said.

One week ago, David Eby released a bold plan to take ownership of the DTES.


David Eby, then a lawyer with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, speaks to reporters in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in 2009. Photo by Ric Ernst /PNG

The area is worse than ever, says Eby, who knows whereof he speaks. As a young, activist lawyer, Eby got his start representing the residents of the DTES, writes Vaughn Palmer in a November 11th article in the Vancouver Sun.

Instead of joining the legions of buck-passers, Premier Eby proposes that his government take ownership of the troubled area.

“The key piece that’s been missing has been a single level of government to bottom line what’s happening in the neighbourhood,” Eby declared early in his bid for the NDP leadership.

“The crisis in the Downtown Eastside is well beyond what the city of Vancouver can take on, on their own. Ottawa is too far away.”

“The opportunity here is for the province to take a leadership role and say we will take responsibility. We will co-ordinate this. We’ll work with the city. We’ll work with the feds. We’ll work with the large Indigenous population down there.”

Measures will include replacing the single-room occupancy hotels “that are burning down, that people won’t live in, and replacing them with appropriate housing,” says Eby.

He’ll also replace the sidewalk-clogging tent cities that are the area’s most obvious sign of deterioration.

“I don’t support encampments,” Eby told Richard Zussman of Global TV. “I don’t think they’re a solution to homelessness. I don’t think they’re safe for the people who live in them. I’ve seen too many fires, too many injuries. People have died.”

Another element of Premier  Eby’s thinking about the crisis on the streets emerged back in August when he came out in favour of involuntary treatment for people who overdose repeatedly.

“When someone overdoses twice in a day and they show up in the emergency room for the second time, a second overdose in the same day, the idea that we release that person back out into the street to overdose the third time and die or to have profound brain injury or just to come back to the emergency room again, seems very bizarre,” Eby told Postmedia’s Katie DeRosa.

“We need to have better interventions and that could include and should include involuntary care for people to make sure they at least have a chance,” he said.

Make no mistake, Premier David Eby means to make a difference, as PostMedia’s Katie DeRosa wrote just two days ago, David Eby, as an …

“Idealist and pragmatist. Activist and member of the establishment. Workaholic and yoga dad. Fixer of the root causes of crime, housing unaffordability and a crumbling health care system, intractable issues he’s under pressure to make progress on before he faces B.C. Liberal leader Kevin Falcon in the 2024 election.

Those around him say the 46-year-old father of two is driven, laser-focused and relentless and will likely expect the same from members of his soon-to-be-named Cabinet, the swearing-in of Premier Eby’s new and revitalized Cabinet set for December 7th. He’s also not afraid to defy those he believes are standing in the way of progress, which is why he has promised to override local mayors reluctant to approve affordable housing projects.

“His approach is calm, methodical, considerate, and broad-thinking,” says Joy MacPhail, the former NDP Cabinet Minister and interim party leader, and ICBC Board Chair when the reforms were underway in 2018, who remains a mentor to Eby.”


Premier-delegate David Eby and his transition team. Left to right: Chief of Staff Matt Smith; co-chair of the transition team, Doug White, chair of B.C.’s First Nations Justice Council & former chief of the Snuneymuxw First Nation; Premier David Eby; and former BC NDP leader and Finance Minister, Carole James, a co-chair of the transition team. Photo by Darren Stone /Victoria Times Colonist

David Eby was sworn in as Premier at the Musqueam Community Centre, the location a powerful symbol of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, Eby told PostMedia’s Katie DeRosa.

Mr. Eby took the oath of office at 10 a.m. this morning in front of Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin at the community centre on the Musqueam First Nation.

“I am excited to be taking this important step close to home where my family and the people who have always supported me live,” Eby said Tuesday in a statement.

Mr. Eby said he’s grateful to Chief Wayne Sparrow, the Musqueam councillors and the Musqueam people for hosting the ceremony in their community.

“Because of their efforts, this event will be a powerful symbol of a shared vision for a province that delivers results for all British Columbians, in close partnership with Indigenous Peoples,” he said.

The community centre at 6735 Salish Dr. in Vancouver is in the Vancouver-Quilchena riding, which is represented by B.C. Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon. David Eby, 46, is the MLA for the neighbouring riding, Vancouver-Point Grey.

Moving the swearing-in ceremony to Vancouver is also an indication Premier Eby will likely conduct more government business from Vancouver, to be closer to his family. Mr. Eby’s wife, Dr. Cailey Lynch, is a family physician, and the happily married couple have two children, 8-year-old Ezra and 3-year-old Iva.