Eby’s Baby Countdown Brings BC Election Campaigning

VANCOUVER — British Columbia’s election is four months away, but Premier David Eby held a campaign event Thursday in Vancouver ahead of what he says is a personal countdown — the birth of the family’s third child expected next week its.

Eby said he and his wife, Cailey, are expecting a daughter on June 27, so he wanted to start campaigning early for the Oct. 19 election, introducing four New Democratic candidates before taking a break to spend some time with his family. .

He said October 19 is the fixed date for the BC election and June 27 is his family’s “fixed date baby”.

“So some of you know what this is all about,” Eby said. “So we are expecting a beautiful baby girl. I spend a little time with my family, but these candidates will be out there knocking on doors in the community.”

Eby introduced four New Democrat candidates, former broadcaster Randene Neill, Baltej Dhillon, the first RCMP officer to wear a turban on duty, Indigenous leader Michael Moses and Vancouver community support lawyer Sunita Dhir.

Eby’s early start to the campaign comes amid open battle between BC’s two centre-right parties, Opposition Leader Kevin Falcon’s BC United and John Rustad’s upstart BC Conservatives.

Falcon said the party has been stung recently by losing caucus members and candidates to Rustad’s conservatives. But these things happen in politics, he said, citing the NDP’s loss of former elected members Selina Robinson and Adam Walker.

“Yes, we also lost candidates and MPs,” he said. “This kind of thing, unfortunately, happens. But when the election happens, the public looks around.”

Chris Moore, a business leader and former Sechelt ward councillor, announced Wednesday that he will no longer represent BC United in the October election in the Powell River-Sunshine Coast ward and will instead run as a candidate for Rustad’s Conservatives.

Former BC United MLAs Elenore Sturko and Lorne Doerkson recently passed and said they will seek re-election as Conservatives.

Prof. David Black, a political communications expert at Royal Roads University of Greater Victoria, said the “extraordinary” events taking place between the Conservative and BC United parties have increased public awareness of the upcoming election.

People don’t deal with politics during the summer months, but the feud between BC United and the Conservatives keeps the public’s attention on the distant election, Black said.

“The structural realignment that we’re seeing on the right, I would say, is bringing British Columbians more into the BC election than they otherwise would be,” Black said.

“People are a little more aware of what’s going on, they’re aware of the election in the fall because of all the political news, with defections and notable nominees for one party saying, ‘I’m going to run for the other party.’

BC’s fixed election date law puts governments into permanent campaign mode, which is ongoing in BC, he said.

The province was the first in Canada to hold a fixed election date in 2005.

“Given the machinations of the centre-right now and that we’re four to five months away from the election, it’s understandable that the BC NDP is campaigning,” Black said. “I would say the BC NDP campaign started more than a year ago.”

Eby told the campaign crowd that his government is making progress on health, housing and the economy, and he wants that to continue.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 20, 2024.

The Canadian Press