Why did Eby call a snap election ?

Despite pleas and requests by municipal governments, organizations, and candidates across the province, BC Premier David Eby has gone forward with a snap election, creating confusion amongst voters amidst the regularly scheduled municipal elections. Eby claims that he called the election because he wanted popular support for its economic plans, but a closer analysis shows that it is dubious. The Premier most certainly tried to take advantage of conflicts inside the Conservatives’ caucus.

David Eby was elected two years ago, on October 19, 2024, when his party – the New Democratic Party (NDP) – got a majority of seats. Two years before the end of his term, on September 22, the premier surprised the press by announcing a snap election that would take place on October 24. 

The call for the snap election shares a timeline close to the political crisis which was happening within the BC Conservatives caucus at the time. In the last months, fourteen different MLAs left the caucus, citing disagreements with the leadership and its political direction. The shaky month of September for the Conservative party culminated in the resignation of Kerry Lynne-Findlay on September 20th, after less than 4 months as leader of the caucus. 

Two days later, Eby decided to call for a snap election asking voters to go to the polls on October 24, one week after municipal elections on October 17. This gave voters only a month to focus and decide which party was going to lead the province in the best direction, while they had to answer this same question for their local municipalities. 

Bart*, a worker at a steel shop in Surrey, mentioned how people were showing up to early election sites confused, not knowing whether or not it was a site for provincial or municipal elections. “We just voted anyway, it’s not like it was gonna make a difference reading through all their half-baked platforms.”

Was the election called to resist Trump ?

The timing of this snap election was very obviously intended to seize upon the current confusion and division happening within the Conservatives. When called out in the provincial debate, describing the move as an “opportunistic power grab,” Eby instead cited the growing tensions between USA and Canada as the real context of the snap election.

“We are facing an existential threat, as a province and as a nation… I want to do more for the province, but I need a strong mandate. That means every vote.” Eby’s claims throughout this small election campaign have been based around the idea of Building BC Strong. Its direction has been modelled, if not copied, after Carney’s Canada Strong 2025 federal campaign. 

David Eby says for the provincial government to pass decisions, acts, and laws which can promote Canadian sovereignty from the USA, the province would need a majority government which can pass these things easily and not take as much time. A similar approach was used in the prior federal snap election, only concerning COVID-19 instead. But as Emily Lowan, new leader of the Greens, pointed out, the NDP has a majority government. So, why can’t it pass the legislation it wants to?

Last year, a similar phenomenon happened in Ontario, with Doug Ford citing Canada-US trade relations as the reason behind the snap election he called. 

Eby’s plan for a “BC Strong”

In a media release published after the election call, the NDP outlined a strategy to build a stronger economy independent  of Trump based around two main points.

1. Keep costs down for Canadians during the trade war by investing in and strengthening public services
2. Build an economy free from the US by building infrastructure and homes, while growing industries that BC needs. 

These two points are almost indistinguishable from the direction of the other main parties, being the Greens and the Conservatives, with even the Conservatives promising to invest in public healthcare. While both opposition parties have presented concrete figures, economic projects and plans to solve BC’s $13.7 Billion deficit while building Canada’s economic independence, the NDP’s platform has been almost vague in what they are proposing. 

While the 26 year old BC Greens leader has presented a concrete plan with figures and projected numbers promising a wealth tax on the province’s elite, Eby only ever talks about having those with a lot of money pay “just a little more.” 

Growing antagonism between different Indigenous nations and the provincial NDP has also limited the party’s plans for future economic development in BC. While fearmongering has dominated the conversation around the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), the NDP is stuck with the same liberal posturing which prevents cooperative economic development between both the Canadian and Indigenous nations. 

While Eby’s actions promise no clear direction on the path for developing the Canadian economy and strengthening Indigenous nations, opposition parties have. The BC Conservatives have called out the Truth and Reconciliation model as being “in-name” only, with the party planning to roll out – instead – a new Economic Reconciliation model which prioritizes supposed economic plans between Indigenous nations and the Province after abolishing the DRIPA. 

It’s unclear, though, on what basis this supposedly new model will be built. Without DRIPA, the Conservatives would have to establish some new framework for nation-to-nation negotiations with Indigenous Peoples or else return to the historic government method of disregarding their right to self-determination altogether. 

However, more straightforward attempts to force through projects that disproportionately benefit Anglo-Canadian interests is likely to meet strengthened resistance from Indigenous people. 

Eby should have included workers in its planning

Polls project  the NDP as a clear loser of the incoming vote. Its government would go from a majority position to being the first opposition to a Conservatives rule in decades. Eby’s economic plan doesn’t seem to tap in the same sentiment among the population as Carney’s Canada Strong was able to in the last federal elections.

Indeed, since most political parties in Canada are currently surfing on the trade war wave in their public communications, Eby would have probably needed to have a genuine – innovative – plan to seduce the BC electorate.

*The interviewee asked to remain anonymous