He doesn’t have to cite the REAL reasons: David Eby can blame “wanting to spend more time with his family”; personal health issues; yearning for a new professional challenge; or, he just needs more time to read the blogs.
Of course, Eby won’t admit how British Columbians have tired of his endless pandering/give-aways/caving in to First Nations militants; BC’s skyrocketing debt under his “leadership”; the crisis so many voters are now facing dealing with affordability; the continuing problems with BC Health Care; people’s ongoing fears for their public safety, as criminals and crazies run amok; or, maybe worst of all, the disastrous state of BC’s investment/development economy.
Let’s keep it real: Eby HAS to go … if the NDP is to have ANY chance of being re-elected when the voters get their chance to speak their minds.
“Support for the B.C. Conservative party has increased, even before its new leader is chosen, while the governing NDP’s popularity continues to show signs of waning, a new Leger poll has found,” The Vancouver Sun reported April 10th.
At that time, the NDP was still ahead, garnering 44% support, down 4% from the previous Leger survey; the Conservatives were up 2% to 40%.
And that was without a new Conservative leader yet being chosen.
“If I was the NDP I’d be a bit worried about that. … It’s not alarm bells yet, but it should be concerning,” said Leger vice-president Steve Mossop. (Read the details here: https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-conservatives-gain-ground-before-leadership-vote-as-ndp-support-softens-poll.)
In fact, just weeks earlier, Angus Reid had the Conservatives ahead: 44% to 42% … again, despite having no new leader making promises, taking stands, catering to growing hopes for change.
And Eby’s personal popularity in the same poll stood at only 37% … third lowest of the nine Premiers rated by voters.
“New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds Eby’s approval rating has declined 16-points year-over-year. In March 2025, when most premiers enjoyed a bump in popularity as nationalism surged in the face of tariffs and threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, Eby was approved by a record-high of 53 per cent of British Columbians. Now, just 37 per cent say the same,” the Institute noted.
And that was BEFORE Eby caved so humiliatingly on DRIPA in the face of First Nations pressures, threats. (Read the full story here: https://angusreid.org/premiers-performance-march-2026/.
Can hardly wait for the next post-DRIPA Eby “popularity” survey!
However, the truth is the reasons behind Eby’s decline in popularity go well beyond DRIPA: my impression is the public today sense an insensitivity, arrogance in the Premier; and, many also feel a sense of betrayal … in the face of mounting costs of living and yet, ever-increasing taxes, fees and BC debt.
In fact, BC’s projected deficit this year under Eby will top $11 Billion; the provinces debt will hit $155 Billion …and is reportedly growing at more than $45 million a day! (This from a Premier who inherited a surplus!)
And yet, the province’s unemployment rate in March hit 6.7% … the highest in a decade (apart from the Covid pandemic) … and the province in March lost 19,000 jobs, on top of the 20,200 BC lost in February.
Nor can all the blame be attributed to US tariffs.
““We’ve had losses in wholesale trade, we’ve had transportation, warehousing, finance, insurance, a very broad base in terms of our economy right now, it seems, for some of those losses,” Bryan Yu, a chief economist with Central 1, told Global News.
All Canadian provinces are facing stresses from the Mad Hatter’s tariffs, especially Ontario. So it really says a lot when so many thousands of British Columbians still leave home to seek jobs elsewhere!
If Eby cares at all about the future of the NDP in BC, its time to go … and give the party a chance to rebuild, refocus and maybe even repent to the majority of BC voters … under a new leader.
Meanwhile, I’d love to read Eby’s “CV”, listing his “job accomplishments” over the past four years, when he looks for a new job.
Should be quite a hoot!
Harv Oberfeld
🇨🇦🇨🇦Buy Canadian! Keep yourself and your neighbours working!🇨🇦🇨🇦
(Follow @harveyoberfeld on “X” for FREE First Alerts to new postings on this blog.)
Well the Eby apologist party is in a free fall with no apparent parachute available!
Eby’s approval rate has sunk to 33% and the opposition is leaderless at this point!https://www.castanet.net/news/BC/612656/Support-for-BC-NDP-craters-amid-handling-of-DRIPA
I’m sure he’s finished, all this when Kennedy Stewart also has said a BC NDP MLA is under investigation for ties to the PRC!https://www.castanet.net/news/BC/612658/Eby-hits-back-at-claim-B.C.-minister-is-under-investigation-for-helping-China
The stiff, condescending, civil libertarian lawyer ranks are about to regain a former political stick man!
(Response: Maybe Eby is waiting to see who the Conservatives choose as leader and how they perform. The polls a few months later should be very telling … give Eby the final push out, or the hope that he can hang on and keep his job. Ho)
Correction: I forgot Kim Campbell. The Conservatives did elect a woman leader only to have Canadians give her zero support.
Kim Campbell stood still while everyone else stepped back from the Conservative Leadership after Mulroney gutted that Party.
She dutifully fell on the sword, took one for the team…and was rewarded with an Ambassador placing in that “tough posting”…Los Angeles.
She got to hobnob with the Hollywood glitterati
Do NOT feel sorry for our Kim unless you were like me and didnt buy her book……
“I’m sure you would agree that whenever a major party chooses a new knight in shining armour, especially one in Opposition ,,, they get a bump in the polls.”
Maybe. Memories get fuzzy but my first introduction to politics was watching the Conservative convention of 1967 when Diefenbaker tried to hold on to his leadership but lost to Robert Stanfield. I can remember a scowling Diefenbaker on our old black and white TV. I really didn’t understand it all but there was a sense of drama.
Then the Conservative convention of 1976 was literally must see TV. The outsider Mulroney. A baby faced Joe Clark. Flora Macdonald, a strong female candidate who seemed to have had enough votes to have a shot only to see her support disappear for no other reason than she was female. (Aside: over 50 years later Trudeau Jr made some critical comment about Americans not being able to elect a female president. It made me chuckle as neither of our two main parties in Canada have ever chosen a female leader.) Anyway, the drama of watching Flora and what remained of her group of supporters walk to Joe Clark’s side to help him win was political theatre at its best.
So I kind of followed future conventions for a while, but nothing could compete.And now computers have taken over the voting so no multiple votes and bottom feeders having to drop out and deciding who to support and taking supporters with them. Seriously who really follows leadership races any more. How big a bump in the polls did Scheer or O’Toole or Poilievre give the Conservatives. Dion and Ignatieff? Mulcair and Singh? Harper lost his first election as Conservative leader.
Provincially? Christy Clark? But interestingly, she ended up taking on Adrian Dix and his baggage from the Glenn Clark era because a faction of the NDP forced Carole James to resign because she had lost two elections despite bringing the NDP back from the 2 seat debacle of 2001. I wonder how 2013 would have turned out if James had stayed leader.
I know leaders are important because they are the face of the party but it is the policies of the party that we vote on. Eby can resign and people are still going to be upset at the policies of the NDP. A new leader will still have the baggage of all the complaints that people have of Eby’s NDP. So if I was advising the NDP, I would tell Eby to ride it out. The polls aren’t horrible. You still have time to correct some of the problems. If you win, you can later resign and let a new leader take over under favourable conditions. And if you lose, then we elect a new leader with a fresh start.
But that’s just me.
(Response: The big difference these days is the HUGE presence/impact of 24-hour TV News channels, social media: they push the “leader” much more into the spotlight, whether federally or provincially. I remember how so many Canadians (and British Columbians), not just news junkies, knew the names of so many more Cabinet members and their portfolios. Today, fewer people can name who holds even major portfolios like Finance, Health, Education, Defence. It’s all about the Leader, but because of that much higher profile/spotlight, voters get fed up/tire of the Leader, unless they are particularly popular. Eby is NOT … and,given his personality, I think the public’s desire for change will only increase …even if he somehow finds an escape route out of his DRIPA fiasco. Ho)
Without question, DRIPA has arbitrarily reshaped British Columbia by giving very large amounts of political and economic authority to First Nations governments that are not at all accountable to the majority of British Columbians. In a real sense, it is a form of communism, a redistribution of wealth that most voters have never approved. It has been introduced with fancy expressions such as “reconciliation” and “equity”, but the vocabulary is inaccurate because it neither achieves reconciliation or equity.
It is truly a culture war, and it is one that has upset many voters. Just like many on the left are afraid to criticize any action that makes the pharmaceutical industry accountable for its actions, many are afraid to criticize any action that is for indigenous communities. They don’t want to hear that they are racist or indifferent to the injustices of the past. However, one has to be truly blind to believe that all the injustices were committed by one group.
The Conservatives not only have to promise to repeal DRIPA but also to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion in government hiring practices and take out all social engineering (social orientation) from the school system. It’s best to let parents raise their children and not make our schools centres of indoctrination. They also have to end the practice of land acknowledgements and defend the history, identity and culture of all who have made British Columbia the province it is today.
It is time to rebuild the statues of historical figures and eliminate cultural marxism. Voters must not forget that Premier Eby has called British Columbia a colonial mistake. If he truly believes that, he can go back to England or wherever his ancestors came from.
Other problems include the dreadful fiscal situation, the deteriorating economy that has driven away many of the province’s youth and the harmful ideology that attacks the history of British Columbia in both education and government. It is unacceptable that the provincial curriculum teaches children that they are settlers and colonizers.
The Conservative Party needs to protect property rights, repeal DRIPA and defend religious freedom. It is interesting that those who preach tolerance are often very intolerant of those who don’t share their views. It is time to rebuild trust in government and prioritize issues such as accountability, affordability, fiscal responsibility, health care and safe communities. The NDP has clearly taken the province in the wrong direction.
(Response: I’d vote for YOU! You do indeed seem to have a very good grasp on what has really been going on in BC and Canada over the past decade or more. It’s not that British Columbians and other Canadians don’t want to deal with past issues of inequality, discrimination and exploitation: but that extreme left governments have gone too far (the NDP in BC and the Liberals under Trudeau and the NDP under Singh in Ottawa). Instead of realistically addressing these issues, they just pandered, caved and kow-towed to the demands of the FN, the militant activists/anti-Semites on campuses, the druggie lobbyists etc. forgetting the middle class taxpayers, struggling working families, seniors. And now DRIPA installs a whole new level of government on BC!!! Crazy!! Time for the pendulum to return to center … not too far to the right …but center. Ho)
Congrats Harvey.
You “stole” all the resignation excuses before Eby can use them.
I wonder if the NDP will ask Eby to stay on and on and on ….so that they can pull a “Trudeau”…
Resign at the 11th hour when the federal Cons had the election in the bag…and Carney walks in and scoops victory from the jaws of defeat.
Which begs the question…
Who is the provincial NDP version of Carney?
(Response: That’s a good question! And your scenario could also be right on … have Eby take all the anger from the taxpayers and, at the last minute, replace him with someone who has a greater chance of getting the NDP re-elected over the Conservatives. The big difference, though, is federally although Trudeau was unpopular, there was no HUGE EMERGENCY issue the Liberals were being blamed for …unlike DRIPA, which is clearly an NDP disaster and danger to BC’s entire governmental system! Ho)
There is no one in the NDP, they can pull a “Carney” in the next election. The NDP are too set in their 1960’s ways to change and i do not even see a will to change.
Sadly the NDP are like MAGA, chasing pipe dreams, forgetting they are living in the real world.
The only saving grace for the NDP I can see is the the conservatives elect an outright Maple MAGA to be leader a anti everything and that could scare a lot of people to vote NDP or not vote at all.
The Campbell/Clark/Falcon destruction of the provincial Liberal name has killed any chance of any middle of the road party and a “anybody but the NDP/Conservative” Party just isn’t in the cards.
The joker in the deck is Trump, his punitive tariffs, and the organic Canadian boycott of the USA could spawn something, a credible third party, but I doubt it. But that is the joker in the deck and I do not think our Fox North Media is not reporting this but I do sense a general distaste for the BC conservatives but an even far greater distaste for the NDP!
Also not being reported is the growing number of Canadians being refused entry to the USA and banned for 5 years or more from entering the USA. This is being unreported and I now know of at least 5 people this has happened to, just refused entry and banned. And the USA is wondering why tourism is dropping.
If Eby was smart (and I do not think he is all that smart) he would resign now because the going is going to be brutal this summer (especially with potential FIFA fiasco) and the debt mounting. I just shake my head at the NDP’s self inflicted wounds.
(Response: Eby and Dix keep mentioning billions of dollars of deals that are in the process stage and I suspect the NDP is counting on those projects …when firm …to bail them out with the voters. However, I believe they underestimate the concerns, the frustration and the anger many voters are feeling re DRIPA …which shows no signs of going away ..unless it is totally repealed. Ho)
I just saw Dallas Brodie on her website, today, and she claimed the BC Conservative leadership debate was introduced with a new land acknowledgement by The Sun’s Stewart McNish and he had a new name for Vancouver –Kemeloway. No spelling was provided.
(Response: I guess when you co-govern, you get a say in the name of everything? I just wish some intrepid reporter …who hasn’t retired, taken a buy out or been laid off yet … would ask the FN rep at the “new” naming/project ceremony “And since you’re getting to name it, what part of the cost of this project is your band/nation picking up? Ho)
Back on Feb.2, you wrote about an earlier Leger poll. At that time,
“The survey of just over 1,000 British Columbians shows 44% would vote NDP; 38% Conservative, 9% Green.”
And now almost three months later we have a new Leger poll showing
“The NDP still ahead, with 44 per cent support… (and) the Conservatives at 40 per cent, (picking) up two points since January at the expense of the now-defunct OneBC party.”
For comparison, the election results in 2024 were NDP 44.86% and the Conservatives 43.28%.
Sounds like nothing has changed
The current NDP are in the midst of their best electoral record ever. Barrett lasted three and a half years. The NDP won two elections in a row in the 90s although the second election was a fluke when they lost the popular vote by a couple of % points yet still managed a majority. (Why don’t more Conservatives support proportional representation?)
And this time around, they “won” the 2017 election by making a confidence agreement with the Greens; they won in 2020 because of Covid, and they narrowly won in 2024 because the BC Liberal Party imploded and many of their former supporters felt the NDP were safer than the the new kids on the block.
The NDP is hardly a juggernaut and losing (except perhaps in 2013) will never be a surprise.
But is getting rid of Eby the NDP’s ONLY hope? In my lifetime, an unpopular Vander Zalm resigned and poor Rita Johnson and the Socreds were decimated. An unpopular Pierre Trudeau resigned and John Turner and the Liberals were whipped. An unpopular Glen Clark resigned and Ujjal Dosanjh and the NDP won two seats. An unpopular Mulroney resigned and Kim Campbell and the Conservatives won two seats.
What about Christy Clark replacing Gordon Campbell and Mark Carney replacing Justin Trudeau you might ask. Both of those were outsiders and Clark had the advantage of taking on Dix, and Carney had the threat of Trump. Replacing an unpopular leader isn’t necessarily a guarantee of future success.
Quick, name some NDP cabinet ministers. Dix, Farnsworth, Nikki Sharma, uh the lady who heads finance umm and …. Who would you recommend replace Eby? It seems more and more that Prime Ministers and especially Premiers get all the attention. At this point I just don’t see any advantage in Eby resigning and some unknown taking his place as a solution to polls that aren’t really all that bad.
What’s their best hope? Doing a better job over the next two years and hoping that the Conservatives continue to flounder under a new (and completely unknown) leader.
At my stage of life I am becoming less and less emotionally invested in election results. We will get who we get. I am just hoping I am still around to read the results and have the mental capacity to comment on them. lol
(Response: Me too! Actually, the point you raise about poll results being so similar surprised me … until I considered the timing. The latter poll was also conducted BEFORE the DRIPA fiasco erupted and BEFORE the Conservatives selected their new leader. I’m sure you would agree that whenever a major party chooses a new knight in shining armour, especially one in Opposition, who can promise everything to everyone, there is a honeymoon period when they get a bump in the polls. That’s why I wrote I can hardly wait until the NEXT survey results: I suspect the Conservatives will see more than a bump … and, if he/she is effective, that could last for more than just a few weeks.
As for replacing Eby, I don’t think any of those around him in government could convince middle-of-the-road independent or working voters, especially property owners, that they would really prioritize the middle class, working families affordability, public safety (over the homeless, First Nations, druggies)or have the backbone to stand up to militant FN on DRIPA. The only hope … a new middle-of-the-road leader from outside the current NDP (law/public service unions/university elitists) establishment … maybe a new face/voice from industrial labour, health care or even small business. Ho)
The problem facing the NDP is now a total wipe out.
DRIPA will be the main issue, with endemic elder abuse, hospital closures and run a way bureaucracy at all levels of government, following in the rear.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions”, comes to mind.
The NDP have absolutely forgotten about the “common man/woman in their politically correct and sanitized world and blunder along like nothing has happened.
The NDP, with the narrowest margins of a mandate are operating like the Emperor Trump, with plenty of expensive advertising on all media, including all social media platforms.
The NDP are spending huge amounts of money on pet programs, while the basics, like healthcare rot ( they just cancelled phase 2 of the Burnaby Hospital upgrade)
$16+ billion to extend SkyTrain a mere 217 km on two routes that do not have anywhere near the ridership to warrant such an investment.
$10 billion to add an HOV Lane from Langley to Chilliwack.
And who knows how expensive the Massey Tunnel replacement will be, last guesstimate over $8 billion for a bridge or tunnel!
I can go on, like the NDP’s pet housing policy is a complete failure or the Lytton fiasco, where there is now talk of abandoning the town forever.
Then there is FIFA and that hornets nest of ills which will cost taxpayer’s dearly. If Eby attends any games, he better show the receipts that he paid for a ticket because that will come back to haunt him big time in a future election.
For myself, Eby and the NDP are radio active, as is the conservative party and if their is a credible 3 rd option I will vote there, if not, I will not vote simply because I feel strongly the NDP and Conservative political parties are UNFIT FOR OFFICE!
(Response: The more that comes out about DRIPA, the scarier it gets! DRIPA does indeed contain a clause that would REQUIRE indigenous approval (co-government?) before any development or even new legislation can go ahead. Previously, Constitutional rulings required “consultation” only. How the BC legislature unanimously passed DRIPA is a lesson in political incompetence: a rush to placate, hold hands and sing “Cumbayah” while ignoring the terrible consequences of the new “law”… unless you’re FN, with whole new powers! DRIPA MUST be fully repealed …not just amended!! Ho)
I had thought Eby would have resigned a couple of months ago. It seemed like an obvious move for any political party.
Replacing him soon would give a new leader a slim chance of a honeymoon period. That they have not mentioned replacing Eby makes me think that the NDP are waiting for another shoe, or shoes, to drop.
Meanwhile the BC Conservative leadership candidates are discussing their differences quite openly this week.
(Response: I suspect the NDP are hoping that, with time, the DRIPA problem will resolve itself; some new development projects will get approval; federal legislation helping the provinces deal with bail and the revolving door sentences will come into effect; and, the voters will look more kindly on Eby.
I believe they are dreaming in technicolour: just yesterday I heard a report on the radio that a prominent native chief has boldly asserted that BC is now being “co-governed” by the First Nations. And I’m sure he’d be able to find some extreme left activist judge(s) to agree with him! Unless Eby develops the backbone to totally repeal DRIPA, all those other hopes of the NDP will remain on hold and Eby and the party will face the public’s wrath in the next election. Ho)
I cannot come up with any possible rationale as to why this guy continues to want to stay in power. Unless he lives in some sort of made up alternate universe he must realise his time has come.
I’ve gone back and looked at some of his speeches on you tube to maybe get some insight in the thought process. I even found one where he might have commented when Trudeau resigned in 2025 but found nothing.
A true leader would do the right thing for his party and the people of BC and step down immediately.
Good lord.
(Response: It could be ego, combined with stubbornness? Eby is not stupid: I believe he’s just incredibly naive! He thinks First Nations militants can be reasonable, but the truth is some of them are like sharks that have smelled blood… and will make every effort to take advantage, not seek a fair resolution of the horrible situations created by the ridiculous UN document. Ho)
Can’t wait to vote. Anybody is better than Eby. I have looked over the resumes of the Conservative candidates for the leadership …. one that is a successal business man, is Yuri Fulmer. We need someone who knows how to run a business and apply that background for the government. In otherwords keep costs down. Giving in to the natives is one that really pissess me off. They must have a bank account with millions of dollars .. and they want more.. Whoever happens to be new leader of the Conservatives is really needed ….. come on Eby call an election now …
(Response: The “reconciliation” we’ve seen at the provincial and federal levels has been a one-sided farce: First Nations milking other citizens’ sympathies, (found any actual murdered kids in hidden residential school graves yet?), cashing in on endless apologies and for all the billions of dollars shelled out as “compensation”; while no one dares to even suggest the FN should also apologize for their own historic violence (murder, rape, torture, slavery) directed at other natives and also white settlers, including women and children, and all the wasted taxpayers’ funding that has been misused over the decades by band chiefs, councillors and all their relations. No wonder so many fight opening their books … even to band members. And now, some of the more militant leaders are even contending DRIPA makes them “co-governors” of the province! Enough!! Time to take a stand. DRIPA must be repealed! Ho)
Maybe they could do a Mr Horgan 3d ai hologram- no disrespect .
I saw fed NDP failing last election a mile ahead .too much red in the orange.
Watch out the three main parties colours together spell ROB red orange blue.
(Response: The NDP needs a reality check: they seem to have forgotten that blue collar and middle class workers … get that, WORKERS … are where their votes lie, not just far left extremists, First Nations, those in poverty, and drug users. Ho)
Historical note.
A late freind of mine was an engineer for BC Ferries and made a lot of “overtime” trying to make the famed Fast Ferries able to operate on routes that they were not designed for and in the end they became an Albatros around the NDP’s proverbial necks.
They were warned over and over to abandon the project but the Premier Glen Clark and is cohort knew better, or they thought so.
The NDP never admitted they were wrong.
The result, in the 2001 provincial election, the NDP were routed, winning only 2 seats.
Today, playing the part of Glen Clark, is David Eby. With DRIPA is hanging around the neck of David Eby like the proverbial Albatross, the NDP is set to loose every seat in the next election.
Eby, the NDP’s elite’s (the Vision Vancouver crowd) “fair haired boy” ensured his election as party leader. This has caused some displeasure with the party members as he was considered to be a dud.
Today, Eby is seen not as a dud but a terminal liability.
It’s just not Eby, but the NDP who are reminding the electorate of W.A.C. Bennett’s quote about the NDP; “that they could not run a peanut stand”.
If Eby had any moral backbone, he would quit now and let the party elect a new leader and hopefully a new direction because if they don’t, the party faces a complete wipe out.
Our politcal system needs a competent opposition because if not, we will see a rerun of the Campbell years by a cadre of anti vaxers; anti science; anti climate change; Maple MAGA’s who will turn BC into a mini Trumpian landscape (they don’t read history either!).
I am not holding my breathe that the NDP will oust Eby, but someone in the party must publicly state that Eby has been a failure, worse he is a politcal coward!
Eby is un-electable, in fact he is, with his floundering with DRIPA, radioactive with the voter.
Will Eby do the right thing, probably not because the NDP will never, ever admit that they were wrong and that will, in the end, plunge the province under the control of what I perceive, American style MAGA nutters.
(Response: No way would the NDP lose all their seats next time around, even under Eby. In some ridings, the party or local seasoned MLAs are just too firmly entrenched. BUT the last election was so very close and I just can’t fathom ..with all that’s transpired in just a few months … that Eby would/could survive another voter test. If he cares at all about the party, he will walk and give his replacement a chance to change course and rebuild public confidence … before he loses and then gets the bum’s rush! Ho)