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#BCPoli | A Re-Elected David Eby and a BC NDP Majority Government

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The Angus Reid Institute surveyed 2863 citizens in every riding across the province — online, on the phone and in focus groups — a statistically valid sampling of a representative group of voters in each riding / region of the province, and predicts a majority NDP government will be elected on October 19.

Come 9pm this upcoming Saturday night — October 19th, 2024 — incorporating an up-to-date riding by riding analysis, and a representative cross-sampling of the twenty most reliable polling companies which have weighed in and reported out on the 2024 British Columbia election, VanRamblings has come to believe the good citizens of British Columbia will elect David Eby to a full term of office, as our province’s duly-elected Premier-designate, as the British Columbia New Democratic Party is set to enjoy majority government through the autumn of 2028, with a good prospect of being re-elected to office again that year.


The Honourable Thomas R. Berger, leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party in 1969.

For a good long while, VanRamblings believed that the BC NDP’s 2024 campaign for office bore a distinct relation to Tom Berger’s failed and far too “intellectual”, professorial and “coldly calculating” NDP campaign for office, in 1969.

VanRamblings no longer believes that to be the case.

Over the course of the past 10 days — in the post-debate period — the conditions of the 2024 BC NDP campaign have been radically reset, as a warmer David Eby has emerged on the campaign trail, no longer providing deadly boring lectur-y and utterly enervating policy pronouncements devoid of humanity.

Instead what British Columbians have seen in televised press conferences held in, for example, Courtenay-Comox, Campbell River and Surrey, is a David Eby who radiates warmth, the David Eby many of us know so well — the David Eby who consistently polled at a 53% approval rating for the past two years, as Canada’s most popular Premier — once again emerging on B.C.’s political stage, humble and comfortable in his skin — not to mention, affable and engaging — while providing the information British Columbians need to know before they cast their ballot.

VanRamblings advised B.C. NDP leader David Eby to be more aggressive on the campaign trail. David Eby, wisely, ignored VanRamblings’ advice, instead saying to himself, “Well, if I’m going to lose this campaign, I’m going to lose it being me, not as some automaton the campaign created.” David Eby has, as we expected would be the case, taken charge of his campaign for re-election over the course of the past ten days, his waggish sense of humour and his love of the province and all of its citizens front and centre in a rejuvenated and re-energized B.C. NDP campaign.


BC NDP leader Glen Clark emerges victorious and Premier-designate in 1996’s British Columbia election

Then we got to thinking, “If the correlation between the failed 1969 BC NDP campaign and the 2024 BC NDP campaign for office doesn’t hold water, what about the 1996 election, when Glen Clark became Premier, in spite of the fact that Gordon Campbell’s insurgent B.C. Liberal party garnered 43% of the popular vote to Mr. Clark’s 39% of the vote, yet due to ‘voter efficiency,’  the British Columbia New Democratic Party would form and hold government from 1996 through 2001?”

The BC NDP in 2024 have consistently polled five points ahead of the BC Conservatives. What if a situation occurred in 2024 that, although the BC NDP is polling ahead of the BC Conservatives, on a riding-by-riding basis and in the targeted riding campaign BC Conservative co-campaign manager, Dimitri  Pantazopoulos has run, BC Conservatives pull ahead on the seat count on election night to form government, despite winning fewer votes than their BC NDP rival?

Nah, we concluded. Too many differences between the 1996 and 2024 campaigns.

The upstart BC Conservatives are running a seat-of-their-pants election, devoid of a GOTV (Get Out the Vote) electoral machine necessary to win government, with much less money, many more untried candidates, and in a campaign that is rife with … see below as to what we believe to be a more relevant campaign correlation that may well inform the outcome of the 2024 British Columbia election.

On March 26th of this year, VanRamblings published a prescient column titled, Bozo Eruptions Disrupt Election Campaign, where we tracked then Alberta Wildrose party leader Danielle Smith’s failed bid for office.

See if you don’t think that there’s a correlation between Danielle Smith’s failed 2012 campaign for office, and the BC Conservative’s calamitous 2024 campaign.

As Stuart Thompson wrote, at the time, in The National Post …

It is a surefire rule of politics that at any given moment, somewhere in Canada a bozo is about to erupt.

Just as a political campaign is looking to flip the script, or turn the corner, or recapture the narrative, some bozo will ruin it for them, prompting damage control, tearful apologies, or, in the most severe cases, a resignation.

The bozos simply can’t stop themselves from erupting.

Conservative strategist Tom Flanagan, who ran Smith’s 2012 campaign, oversaw one of the most memorable stretches of bozo eruptions in Canadian political history: Smith wanted a big tent party, and open and unvetted candidate nominations.

Two days after the 2012 election was called, a Wildrose candidate’s year-old blog post was unearthed declaring that all gays were destined for a “lake of fire”. Smith refused to rebuke her candidate, saying the party “accepts a wide range of views.” And the hits just kept on comin’ for the Wildrose campaign, as day after day after day, a new candidate bozo eruption garnered front page coverage, and the lead story status on the evening news.

Danielle Smith’s dreams of becoming the Wildrose Premier were dashed, the party 20 points behind their polling on Election Day.

Danielle Smith’s failure to rebuke a candidate. Kind of sounds like BC Conservative Party leader John Rustad, who has consistently refused to censure any racist, intolerant, misogynist and homophobic utterance by any of his candidates.

What does the above have to do with British Columbia’s October 19th election?

Everything.

From the day after the Leaders’ Debate through until today, the BC Conservative campaign has been dogged by the shocking controversy surrounding their Surrey South candidate, Brent Chapman, such that the entire focus of leader John Rustad’s campaign for office has not been on the issues he’s raised at the daily press conferences he has held over the past week. Talk about being off message.


Brent Chapman, the B.C. Conservative Party’s Surrey South candidate, has said that what happened at residential schools is a “massive fraud”, called for a “boycott” of Air Canada to stop airlifts of Syrian refugees, questioned high profile mass shootings such as Sandy Hook elementary school where 20 children were murdered, while denying the white nationalist terrorist attack on a Québec City mosque.

Think of Rustad’s BC Ferries press conference, which got buried in an avalanche of questions put to the leader about whether Brent Chapman would be allowed to continue as a candidate for the BC Conservative Party in the riding of Surrey South.

The entire focus of reporter questions related to the ongoing, disastrous Brent Chapman fiasco, with no questions whatsoever on the BC Conservative plan for BC Ferries, or on subsequent days on the BC Conservative issue of the day, as the BC Conservative campaign was consistently held off message.

Can you say, devastating, calamitous, detrimental, hapless and noxious?

Chapman also shared a graphic posted by a far-right meme account.

The graphic features images of two handguns and the silhouettes of two heads.

“To those liberals who said they would kill themselves if Trump were elected,” the graphic states. “Don’t fuck this up too.”

The graphic suggests “liberals” should aim the gun at the centre of their brain rather than at their chin, an apparent reference to how best to commit suicide.

The most damning Chapman post — and destructive to the BC Conservative campaign — occurred surrounding the resurfacing of past statements demonizing Muslims and Palestinians, accusing them of “inbreeding.”

Why destructive to the BC Conservative campaign? Well, just see above.

Also, because 43% of the voters in the Surrey-Cloverdale riding where former BC United MLA, Elenore Sturko, who joined the BC Conservatives in June — who, only two weeks ago was polling at 56% in the riding, as Brent Chapman’s extremist anti-Muslim rants came to light has seen her potential to win the riding evaporate, as NDP incumbent Mike Starchuk, with the full support of the 43% Muslim electorate, is now set to win the riding Saturday night, and re-election to the BC Legislature.


Keith Baldrey, veteran Global BC Legislative reporter

On Mike Smyth’s CKNW talk show, Global BC reporter Keith Baldrey stated that Elenore Sturko was fully aware of Brent Chapman’s extreme views before she decided to run alongside him, as Ms. Sturko described Chapman as “an extremist” and a “QAnon conspiracy theorist” shortly before she defected.

“A week before Sturko made her jump, her announcement that she’s going to join the BC Conservatives, I ran into her in the Legislature library. And in my Facebook feed was suddenly a video from Brent Chapman and it was sort of about his candidacy. And I didn’t know him, I didn’t know he was married to (federal Conservative MP) Kerry-Lynne Findlay … I said to Sturko, “Oh, so you’re running against an actor?” And she says, “Oh, this guy, he’s a…” and she called him “an extremist,” said he was a ‘QAnon conspiracy theorist, that he’s crazy, you know.’ And at that point, she was still a member of BC United.” (CKNW, Oct 10)

All of the unsettling and disturbing news that has emanated from the BC Conservative campaign, following a dreadful — what CHEK-TV reporter Rob Shaw called a cadaver-like — Leaders’ Debate performance by John Rustad, giving the “win” to David Eby at 48%, with only 32% support for John Rustad, has caused the BC Conservative campaign not only to stall, as the party continues to lose momentum and more and more voter support with each passing day, but to recede, or perhaps even collapse, making a BC Conservative win on Saturday, at best unlikely.

As occurred in 2012 during that year’s Alberta election, come Election Day when Danielle Smith’s Wildrose Party lost 16 percentage points in support due to the day after day, drip by drip revelations of racism, intolerance and the hate espoused by many of her candidates, VanRamblings believes, come Saturday, when the vast majority of British Columbians will cast their ballot at the polls, British Columbians of conscience will make the decision to cast their ballot for the principled candidate for Premier, David Eby, and a British Columbia New Democratic Party where you have heard nary a whisper of intolerance, because as British Columbians we realize when we enter our local polling station, the only reasonable political party to vote for to form government will be the British Columbia New Democratic Party.

You’ll want to watch / listen to what former BC NDP Premier Glen Clark has to say about the 2024 British Columbia provincial election. If you don’t see the Hotel Pacifico podcast YouTube video above, you can listen to it here or here or here.

#BCPoli | VanRamblings Endorses David Eby and a Majority NDP Government

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David Eby and his family, baby Gwen, son Ezra, 10, daughter Iva, 5, and David’s wife, Dr. Cailey Lynch

David Eby stands out as a visionary, a once in a generation political leader who is committed to justice, equity, and the well-being of all British Columbians.

As the Premier of British Columbia, David Eby has demonstrated his exceptional skills as a politician, and his unwavering dedication to meaningful social change.

David Eby’s leadership embodies a rare combination of compassion, authenticity, a deep understanding of how government functions and how best to bring about change for the better that serves the interests of all B.C. citizens — young people just starting their lives, vulnerable populations in every community, middle class and those working to join the middle class working people setting a path to establish themselves in the economy, those British Columbians who have already established themselves as the core element of British Columbia’s population that are thriving in our robust economy, members of our mature population and senior citizens in retirement or just about to embark on retirement — and all ethnic and cultural groups who comprise the mosaic of British Columbia’s diverse population.

David Eby’s bold policy vision seeks to address the province’s most pressing issues — health care, the provision of housing to serve the interests of all British Columbians no matter their economic circumstance, crime and public safety — with a well-thought-out action plan to ensure his government’s success.

  • Health care. David Eby has successfully worked with a sometimes intransigent and hide bound federal government to streamline the process to allow doctors and nurses to enter Canada, become accredited and begin their practice in British Columbia. In 2023, David Eby’s government hired 700 new doctors and 1500 new nurses, and will do so again this year and next year — for a total of 2100 new doctors and 4500 new nurses arriving from abroad over a three year period into British Columbia, unprecedented any where else in Canada, many of Canada’s new physicians and nurses arriving from Great Britain, these health care professionals leaving a British health care system in crisis after 15 years of Conservative government. In addition, British Columbia graduates 1500 new registered nurses and 300 new doctors from British Columbia post secondary institutions each year, a figure set to expand;

  • Housing for all. 100,000 new housing co-operative units to be built across the province over the next 10 years, on Crown land, on a 99-year leasehold basis, collective home ownership for 250,000 British Columbians; 25,000 units of supportive housing to be constructed and open by 2030 to house British Columbia’s unhoused and most vulnerable citizens, too many of them currently living in rundown, rat-infested SROs; 25,000 new homes for those getting into the market, 40% of the cost of the new homes borne by government on a 25-year cost recovery basis; the B.C. Builds programme, which will see the construction of 100,000 units of market housing, many of those transit-oriented new homes in Metro Vancouver built around Skytrain stations; and 50,000 units of housing as homes for our burgeoning seniors population;
  • British Columbia Attorney General Niki Sharma and Premier David Eby have over the past two years embarked on a mission to ensure the revolving door system of justice — or injustice, as most British Columbians see it — comes to an end, so that prolific offenders are jailed and off the streets for an indefinite period of time. In addition, Premier David Eby has committed to a system of involuntary care for those addicted, mentally unwell members of our community involved in crime, assault and mayhem as a lifestyle choice, who pose a danger to themselves and others, who will receive  treatment to allow them to become functioning members of our community.

The entire British Columbia New Democratic Party platform may be found by clicking or tapping on this link, and includes information on the B.C. NDP’s proposed transportation policy — which involves full government funding of public transportation, as a priority — expanding school meal programmes; strengthening consumer protection laws; cracking down on housing speculators and flippers; protecting you from the return of MSP premiums and bridge tolls; keeping rent caps in place for B.C.’s residents living in one of British Columbia’s 600,000 rental units; training more doctors;  making B.C. a clean-energy superpower; reducing carbon pollution; moving B.C. closer to our goal of protecting 30% of provincial lands by 2030;  and working with Indigenous peoples to strengthen communities, by taking action on Indigenous housing, education and supports for families and people.

The Future: A Choice for Progress or Regression

As British Columbia heads towards Election Day 2024 — this upcoming Saturday, October 19th — the stakes are high.

David Eby’s B.C. NDP is the only British Columbia political party offering a comprehensive, inclusive vision for our province’s future.

In contrast, the far-right BC Conservative Party, known for its climate change denial and socially regressive policies, not to mention racism and intolerance, threatens to undo much of the progress made under David Eby’s leadership — for instance, the 250,000 British Columbians who might look forward to a residence within one of the 100,000 units of co-op housing David Eby’s government will build, can forget about that as a future prospect, given John Rustad’s regressive Conservatives have no plan to provide any such housing, which they consider to be a radical communist conspiracy, one of the many conspiracies which inform their raison d’être.

The B.C. Conservative Party’s rejection of diversity, inclusivity, and climate science stands in stark contrast to David Eby and the B.C. New Democrats’ commitment to addressing real-world problems with innovative and compassionate solutions.


The October 13th Angus Reid poll of 2863 eligible B.C. voters. Want to make it happen? Vote NDP!

For British Columbians, the choice is clear: a vote for David Eby and the British Columbia New Democratic Party is a vote for progress, stability, and the continuation of policies that uplift all citizens, particularly the vulnerable and marginalized.

David Eby’s leadership represents a rare opportunity for the citizens of British Columbia — a chance to build a fairer, more equitable society while tackling the housing, health care, and climate challenges that will define our province’s future.

#BCPoli | BC NDP on Track to Lose Election, Despite the BC Conservative Party Being Unfit to Govern

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VanRamblings continues to believe that the British Columbia New Democratic Party will lose the 2024 provincial election.

In fact, the current circumstance is so bad for the party, and its leader David Eby, chances are 50/50 that Mr. Eby will lose his Vancouver-Point Grey seat.

The public seems not to care that John Rustad and the Conservative Party of British Columbia are fielding a surfeit of sexist, misogynist, racist, homophobic and transphobic, climate change denying, reproductive rights denying hate mongers — by no means are we saying that this ne’ er-do-well retinue of antediluvian B.C. Conservative Party candidates represent the entirety, or even a majority, of the B.C. Conservative candidates running for office under the Conservative banner — but rather the desire for change, the anger at what many consider to be an arrogant David Eby-led B.C. NDP administration has proved so concerning, the party in power for the past seven years will lose government eight short days from now.

At dissolution, the B.C. NDP held 55 seats: the party is set to lose up to 18 seats …

  • Vancouver Island. North Island, Courtenay-Comox and Nanaimo-Lantzville will be lost to the B.C. NDP and won by the B.C. Conservatives, as will likely be the case in the Ladysmith-Oceanside riding, with the probability that popular NDP Cabinet Minister Grace Lore will lose her Victoria-Beacon Hill seat to either the Green Party’s Sonia Furstenau, or B.C. Conservative candidate Tim Thielmann;
  • Metro Vancouver / Fraser Valley. The NDP’s Mike Starchuk will lose his Surrey-Cloverdale seat to B.C. Conservative candidate Elenore Sturko. One or both of the Langley seats will be lost by the NDP, although there’s a fighting chance Megan Dykeman will hold on to her Langley-Walnut Grove seat. Abbotsford-Mission is a goner for the NDP, as are both of the  Chilliwack seats currently held by the B.C. NDP;
  • Metro Vancouver, north of the Inlet / Fraser River. Susie Chant will lose her North Vancouver-Seymour seat, as will Janet Routledge, in Burnaby North. One of two, or perhaps both Maple Ridge NDP seats will be counted as a loss(es) on election night.

That’s a total of 11 seats the B.C. NDP are all but guaranteed to lose, which would reduce their seat count to 44, or three below a  majority.

If the B.C. NDP lose two more Surrey seats — as is expected — and lose both Langley and both Maple Ridge seats — and lose Victoria-Beacon Hill — that would add five to the total of lost seats, leaving the B.C. NDP with 39 seats.

Keep an eye on the ridings above on Election Night.

If the B.C. NDP are falling behind in these ridings, and on track to lose them to the B.C. Conservatives, you’ll see Global BC / CTV / CBC call the election for the B.C. Conservatives early in the evening.

The good news is that the B.C. NDP are set to pick up three ridings: Cowichan, Vancouver-Langara and Kootenay-Rockies.

Surprisingly — and we feel disappointingly — in David Eby’s home riding of Vancouver-Point Grey, Mr. Eby is running neck and neck with the controversial B.C. Conservative Party candidate, Paul Ratchford.

As we live in the Vancouver-Point Grey riding, we have heard from a large number of residents in the riding that they will be parking their vote with the Green Party candidate, Devanyi Singh, rather than vote for David Eby.

David Eby could very well lose his own seat on Election Night.

The up side for the B.C. New Democratic Party campaign — and, yes, there is heartening news to be had — is that the party has recovered its support among women voters, and are currently polling 17 points ahead of the B.C. Conservatives with women voters. So, yes indeed, there is still some hope yet for a B.C. NDP win.

Also, in the good news department: the latest polling shows that the B.C. NDP have recovered their support among the electorate age 55+, with even stronger support among those 65 years of age and up. Given that this portion of the population gets out to vote, if the B.C. New Democrats — who have a superb ground game and excel at getting their vote out — can ensure their more mature voters get to either the Advance Polls, or to the polling station on Election Day, that would bode well.

And, finally, in the good news department: the B.C. New Democrats have recovered their support with voters age 18 to 34. Seems that young folks are once again enthusiastic about the B.C. NDP campaign, most probably in response to the failings of the “yep, they’re a grotty bunch of aged, mostly white, mostly male, sexist, misogynist, homo-and-transphobic, and climate change denying ne-er-do-well” B.C. Conservatives, as we’ve seen day-in and day out as reported in various news outlets, on our social media feeds, on Tik Tok, and in small, informal gatherings of friends, “I mean, you’re not voting Conservative, are you?”

Nope, younger voters will not be placing an X next to the name of the B.C. Conservative candidate on the ballot they’ll receive at their local polling station.

All of the above is by way of saying, “it ain’t over til it’s over.”

The election of a John Rustad-led B.C. Conservative Party government would bring chaos, hurt and dysfunction, a maintaining of the status quo — for instance, all of the NDP’s housing projects would grind to a halt, as single family dwellings are maintained as the housing form of choice, with nothing getting done, no new schools built or seismically upgraded —and even more egregiously, the SOGI 123 programme that protects LBGTQ+ and gender variant children will be lost, along with 4,000 books from school libraries, identified by far-right-wing “parental rights” forces — transit will not be properly funded … well, the list goes on and on.

Just because the electoral circumstance is looking dire, doesn’t mean that VanRamblings has any intention of rolling over, or that we’re giving up.

Instead, as we promised on our Facebook timeline yesterday, on VanRamblings today you will find a link to the B.C. United “oppo doc” — see below, and click on the highlighted link — the now defunct, and once powerful, political party compiled on the unfit for office candidates running under the B.C. Conservative banner.

#BCPOLI | OPPO RESEARCH DOC | B.C. United on BC Conservative candidates

Should you click on the link above, you will find concerning information on …

  • Dallas Brodie (Vancouver Quilchena)
  • Chris Sankey (North Coast-Haida Gwaii)
  • Bryan Breguet (Vancouver-Langara)
  • Paul Ratchford (Vancouver-Point Grey)
  • Harman Banghu (Langley-Abbotsford)
  • Jordan Kealy (Peace River North)
  • Larry Neufeld (Peace River South)
  • Tim Thielmann (Victoria-Beacon Hill)
  • Honveer Singh Randhawa (Surrey-Guildford)
  • Korky Neufeld (Abbotsford West)
  • Rosalyn Bird (Prince George-Valemount)
  • Tony Luck (Fraser Nicola)
  • John Koury (Cowichan Valley).

Well, the list goes on and on of B.C. Conservative Party malefactors.

You’ll want to read the oppo doc for yourself.

It’s an eye-opening document providing disturbing insight into the people who could soon be running our province.

#BCPoli | David Eby Comes to the Rescue of the Failed 2024 B.C. NDP Campaign

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VanRamblings has known David Eby since he first arrived in town in 2007 to article with the grassroots and activist Pivot Legal Society, where he fought the good fight for the residents who reside on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

In all the time we’ve known David — registering voters and getting the vote out in the 2009 provincial election, in his time as an activist Executive Director with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, and working closely with David in his campaigns for provincial office in 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2020 — we’ve always been inspired by David Eby’s utter brilliance and command of the issues, his compassion and kindness, his ability to connect with people on a visceral level, his commitment to the public good, and for the welfare of everyone who has come to him for help.

Sadly, the David Eby we’ve known well for 17 years, and the David Eby who everyone who has worked with David knows so well and is so passionate about, has not been on display in the B.C. NDP 2024 campaign for office, as if somehow David is a lightning rod, and the campaign team wants to keep him under wraps.

What a terrible mistake the B.C. NDP campaign has made in “hiding” the David Eby those who care passionately about David know so well, and believe in David as the leader we know him to be, with all of our heart and conscience and utter devotion.

Today on VanRamblings, we’re going to introduce you to the David Eby we know well, and will suggest that it is David Eby, and David Eby alone, who will rescue the failed 2024 B.C. NDP campaign for office, that it is David Eby who will lead a 180-degree turnaround of the campaign, as the most inspiring and energizing presence on the hustings, a David Eby who many British Columbians will see for the very first time, a vigorous and tireless campaigner for the public good, in the sprint to the finish of a campaign that will conclude with victory on Saturday, October 19th.

First of all, something you may not know about David.

Our good Mr. Eby has a temper on him, and although not quick to anger, allow us to tell you from first-hand experience, you do not want to be on the receiving end of David’s anger — of course it is a directed and controlled anger, a good anger meant to redefine the circumstance in which one might find oneself, to inspire a change for the better.

In the lacklustre 2024 B.C. NDP campaign for office, we have not witnessed David’s anger — and, migawd, we should, we must — because the David Eby we know is right pissed off with what an antediluvian, regressive John Rustad Conservative administration would mean for the people of British Columbia.

In two words, chaos and hurt.

In the final two weeks of the 2024 B.C. election campaign, let us all see more righteous and palpable anger from David Eby, anger that will cause British Columbians to sit up and take notice, and say …

“Hey, this guy’s passionate about creating a better British Columbia for our family. This David Eby fella, he’s a leader, the kind of leader we need in 2024, someone who is passionate about fighting for us, and is committed to making our lives better.”

We’ll tell you something else you may not know about David Eby.

David Eby does not suffer fools gladly, least of all the so-called leader of the regressive Conservative Party of British Columbia. In the third day of the current campaign that became obvious, when reporters asked the NDP leader to respond to an allegation made by John Rustad that educators were indoctrinating students, so much so that his government would ban 4,000 books currently available in British Columbia schools, “including pornography made available to Grade 4 students as a part of the province’s SOGI 123 programme,” a programme designed to support gender variant children enrolled in our public education system with compassion.


CBC’s Michelle Elliot’s interview with John Rustad, where he says pornography is being made available to students enrolled in B.C.’s public education system, as part of the province’s SOGI 123 programme.

David’s Eby response to John Rustad’s absurd remarks was a roiling amalgam of anger, incredulousness and risible derision, as he rolled his eyes, stating to reporters that he was unsure if he’d ever heard anything more preposterous stated by a political leader. Going forward, the 2024 B.C. NDP campaign must hear, and witness, more fiery and passionate responses from B.C’s NDP leader, and more rolling of his eyes at the nonsensical rantings of the leader of the B.C. Conservatives.

Now, something you already know about David Eby, the Premier of our province.

David Eby is a take charge kind of guy. We’ve seen that every day since he became Premier of British Columbia in November 2022.

Here’s a personal example we’ve experienced: In the 2017 British Columbia election campaign, VanRamblings as we’ve written previously worked the front desk in David Eby’s campaign office. One bright afternoon when David returned to the office following an hour of mainstreeting along West Broadway, from Macdonald to Alma, upon entering the premises David queried us as to how things were going. “Fine,” we said, to which David responded, “Raymond, I know you. You’ve got concerns. Spill. What’s going on? Give me the straight goods. C’mon now.”

We expressed to David that every second call we’d received that morning and early afternoon expressed a concern that although a constituent and supporter had ordered a David Eby re-election sign to be delivered, sometimes as long as two weeks previous, the signs had yet to arrive. David responded, saying, “Raymond, my car is out back. Load up the hatchback with 200 signs, and you and I will spend the afternoon delivering and putting up signs. I’ll get the list from Gala.”

In fact, the two of us spent three hours putting up signs. But we’re talking David Eby here. VanRamblings would put up a sign. David would frown, saying “Two signs, at the corner of the lot, one facing west, the other facing north, for maximum visibility.” And so it went. David Eby very much in control.  200 signs up in 3 hours, sign requests completely up to date, David Eby once again being the hands on, take charge candidate satisfied and energized. That’s the David Eby we know.

Let’s talk about the issues that David Eby is running on.

British Columbia’s Housing Shortage. David Eby, as the feet on the ground visionary leader of British Columbia, working with his 55-member B.C. NDP caucus, has developed a realistic, multi-faceted plan to build housing for …

  • Members of our vulnerable population living on the streets, unhoused, or in substandard, rat-infested SROs located on Vancouver’s DTES, and similar areas in Prince George, Victoria, Kelowna, Nanaimo, and elsewhere will find accommodation in dignified housing in David Eby’s next term in office;
  • Seniors who have found themselves poorly housed, or on the verge of eviction arising from the build, build, build ethos of developers will be afforded accommodation in dignified, and supported where necessary, housing where no resident will pay more than 30% of their income to be housed;
  • Individuals with incomes between $30,000 and $88,000 annually, where one hundred thousand units of co-op housing will be built across the province on federal or provincial Crown land, a place you would own collectively with your neighbours, where no housing co-op member would pay more than 30% of their annual income in housing charge, where vulnerable, low income seniors, and families would be housed in safety and comfort;
  • British Columbians earning an income between $88,000 and $254,000 annually, there’s the B.C. Builds programme, dedicated to the development of new homes for middle-income working people living in communities throughout British Columbia;
  • British Columbians who want to own their own homes, where the B.C. NDP would subsidize 60% of the purchase of a home for first time buyers, and 40% of the purchase price of a home for homeowners who wish to upgrade their housing, in both instances allowing the new homeowners to reimburse government over a 25-year period for the portion of the house purchase subsidized by the province.

David Eby’s government is committed to training and hiring 700 new doctors, and 1500 new nurses each year until every British Columbian has a family doctor, and where wait times for those entering hospital are reduced or eliminated.

David Eby is the man with the plan, running against a tired old, right wing ideologue, bereft of ideas, not on your side, with no action plan whatsoever.

On Thursday, David Eby announced the B.C. NDP’s public transportation programme, which includes an extension of the Millennium line to UBC; a light rail system to Squamish and Whistler; and a rapid bus system to the North Shore, to eventually be replaced by light rail transit or Skytrain, and much more.

In the sprint to the finish in Campaign 2024, David Eby will have to dramatically up his energy level, develop the fire in his belly style of campaigning that Justin Trudeau perfected in the 2019 and 2021 federal election campaigns, where Trudeau carried a flagging Liberal party campaign on his back, emerging in both instances with a substantial minority government.


The Honourable Thomas R. Berger, leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party in 1969.

There’s been some talk among the punditry that has suggested in 2024 David Eby and the B.C. NDP are running a losing 1969 Tom Berger campaign.

B.C. NDP leader Tom Berger in 1969 ran a progressive campaign for office, but was viewed by the public as that most hoary of things: an “intellectual”, his style of campaigning human scale and reasoned, but devoid of warmth and the signifying entertainment value that always defines a successful campaign for office.

When the 1969 election results came in late on the summer evening  of August 27th, British Columbians had wholly rejected Tom Berger as B.C. NDP leader, awarding him only 18 seats — for a loss of four seats, including Mr. Berger’s own seat of Vancouver Burrard — in a 55-seat Legislature, instead re-electing the tired administration of Premier W.A.C. Bennett to a seventh consecutive term in office.

The David Eby VanRamblings knows will not, under any circumstance, allow his and our B.C. New Democratic Party campaign to falter and fail, and will in these final two weeks of Campaign 2024 turn on the jets to run a high energy, inspiring, populist campaign for office, a take charge campaign where David Eby will be louder, angrier, more pointed in his criticism of B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad, more visible and surrounded by thousands of supporters in ridings spanning the province, the galvanizing leader we know him to be and need him to be, imbued with the spirit and best interests of British Columbians front and centre in his campaign, rallying the citizens of our province in common cause to ensure going forward that there will be accessible and ready health care services for everyone, housing for everyone, a vibrant public transportation system, and a thriving green economy, the touchstones of the British Columbia New Democratic Party’s winning campaign for office in the 2024 British Columbia provincial election.