What a difference a week makes in provincial politics.
小蓝视频 Conservative Leader John Rustad started on a high after at his party’s weekend AGM, but ended with his leadership under fire over his refusal to discipline MLA Dallas Brodie for her and attacks on fellow MLAs.
Meanwhile, Premier David Eby lurched through one of the in recent memory, before wrapping the week as Captain Canada — unfurling a giant Canadian flag at the legislature, issuing sanctions against America and channelling the public mood into a strong declaration that Canadians are “” at U.S. President Donald Trump.
Such is 小蓝视频 politics these days, where fortunes can change at a whim, news cycles are measured in mere hours and much depends on the mood of the leader in the White House some 4,700 kilometres away.
Blue Budget
Eby and Finance Minister Brenda Bailey received a tepid reaction to Tuesday’s $10.9-billion deficit budget. Although it racked up massive increases to debt, it also did little other than hold the line on health care, education and social services spending.
“For the most part, this is a ‘more of the same’ budget, focused on growing 小蓝视频’s already expansive public sector, and earmarking additional funding for key public services,” wrote ICBA chief economist Jock Finlayson in .
Bailey tried to blame the uninspired fiscal plan on Trump, though the budget lacked any programs to respond to Trump and the economic forecasts were actually on the optimistic side.
A quick check of 小蓝视频’s books found the sea of red ink was actually the result of more than three years of overspending by the Eby government that has pushed the province into a structural deficit.
The countdown is on to what appears like an inevitable downgrade by credit rating agencies — which will mark the third for the Eby administration in two years.
Meanwhile, Opposition Conservatives used question period to point out statistics like how the $5 billion in cost to simply service the interest on the debt is more than is spent on the entirety of treating addictions.
Conservative In-Fighting
The Opposition 小蓝视频 Conservatives fought their way into Saturday’s AGM in Nanaimo, with a group of unhappy extremists calling for Rustad’s ouster.
Columnist Kirk LaPointe : “A churlish attempt by a clutch of his MLAs, failed candidates and disaffected party members to forget about the coattails they’d ridden to the legislature, and scald the leader at the earliest opportunity.”
. Rustad emerged with his slate in charge of the party, his policy resolutions endorsed and his constitutional changes passed.
Which should have been cause for celebration.
But mere days later, disgruntled Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie , doubling down on her assertion no bodies of children have been found at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, accusing house leader A’aliya Warbus of siding with the NDP against her, and saying some Conservative MLAs are actually New Democrats.
That led to a shouting match inside Conservative caucus Thursday. Brodie disappeared. A visibly upset Warbus publicly accused her of causing division within caucus. Rustad tried to claim it’s all part of a party with views “across the political spectrum.”
“We are a large tent,” he said.
Which was an opening for the ever-nimble Eby.
“A big tent that has space for racism is not a political tent, that’s a circus tent,” he said. “And [Rustad] has got to kick the clown out of that tent. And if he doesn’t do that, then I think we know exactly what kind of a leader he is.”
The issue culminated Friday when Rustad kicked Brodie out of caucus.
"As a result of her decision to publicly mock and belittle testimony from former residential school students, including by mimicking individuals recounting stories of abuses — including child sex abuse, MLA Brodie is not welcome to return to our Conservative Party of 小蓝视频 Caucus," Rustad said in a statement.
"I believe strongly in free speech — however, using your stature and platform as an MLA to mock testimony from victims alleging abuse, including child sex abuse, is where I draw the line," he added.
A PO’d Premier
Eby announced Thursday he would be bringing in new legislation to give him the power to respond to Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs.
The bill, to be tabled next week, would empower 小蓝视频 to fine American trucks that drive through the province to supply Alaska. And it would help reduce unspecified inter-provincial trade barriers to help more easily move goods between provinces.
Rustad suggested Eby simply adopt Nova Scotia’s legislation from last week, to declare all goods manufactured in another province or territory to be treated the same as those manufactured inside it.
But the NDP have gone their own route, with their own legislation.
“We are not going to accept these continued threats, this continued uncertainty,” Eby said of the Trump tariffs.
“We’re going to stand up for Canadians. This is unacceptable. And we’re going to ensure that Americans understand how pissed off we are, how unified we are, how committed we are, to working as a country, to stand up for each other and our own independence on our own two feet.
“And I say we don’t let up until the president takes the threat off the table.”
TransLink, Surrey and Housing
- The 小蓝视频 budget the $600 million annual operating bailout TransLink had called for, to ward off drastic service cuts. Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, who is chair of the Mayors Council, said he’s unwilling to “let people off the hook” on a lack of transit funding due to Trump. “I’m growing quite tired of the kind of political theatre and games surrounding all of this.”
- Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke for ignoring her city: “There was nothing there for Surrey.”
- Despite an all-out attack on anything that might hold up housing construction (from municipal councils, to zoning to property investors) the province’s housing starts remain dismal, at best.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering 小蓝视频 politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Glacier Media. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on C小蓝视频 Radio.
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