British Columbians head to the polls on Oct. 24. While the NDP had a majority whose term didn’t expire until 2028, Premier David Eby decided to gamble it on a snap election, hoping to capitalize on the meltdown of the Conservative opposition.
But this obviously cynical maneuver may have backfired. According to a poll, 65 per cent of British Columbians agree with the sentiment that “David Eby is putting trying to stay in power over the interests of the province.”
Now we are faced with a situation in which the B.C. Conservatives could come to power for the first time in nearly 100 years. All the latest polls put the Conservatives ahead of the NDP.
Antidemocratic maneuvers
This situation is the product of a deep political crisis gripping British Columbia. With capitalism declining, living conditions have degraded across the board. From the rental crisis, to inflation eating away at purchasing power, to the crisis in the healthcare system, people in B.C. have become dissatisfied with the mainstream political figures.
In response, B.C.’s establishment politicians have resorted to all sorts of undemocratic schemes to hold on to power in their respective parties.
First the B.C. Liberals collapsed, subsumed by a Trump-style Conservative party. These erstwhile liberals, who had changed parties as one would change shirts, then orchestrated a coup against not one but two leaders who enjoyed support of the party membership. We now have former Liberal MLA Lorne Doerkson as leader, an unknown backbencher who was chosen because he stands for nothing in particular.
But the NDP is no better. Eby himself is the product of similar antidemocratic maneuvers against a strong antiestablishment current within his own party. Coming to power in 2017, the NDP under former leader John Horgan had bent over backwards for the oil and gas and mining corporations while betraying trade unionists, environmentalists and Indigenous people.
Discontent with these policies manifested itself in 2022 with Anjali Appadurai’s leadership campaign after John Horgan stepped down. She brought over 14,000 new members into the party, more than doubling the membership. Eby, the hand-picked establishment candidate, leaned on the party brass, which bureaucratically disqualified Appadurai. He was then acclaimed leader of the party, which de facto made him premier.
Eby, attempting to manage the sinking ship of capitalism in B.C., moved to betray Indigenous people in favour of mining corporations, bailed out condo developers and sent the nurses’ strike to binding arbitration. His popularity unsurprisingly sunk to just 31 per cent this summer, making him the second-most hated premier in the country.
Eby therefore watched with glee as the Conservatives proceeded to meltdown. Seeing a way to save himself, Eby pounced on the opportunity to call an election.
Now with the establishment of both parties having purged their unacceptable “radical” fringes, British Columbians are forced to pick between two men who no one is particularly enthused about.
Three cheers for democracy!
The crisis beneath the surface
There is a severe crisis taking place in British Columbian society. One third of workers, 775,000 people, do not earn a living wage. 1.3 million people in B.C. do not have a primary care doctor. From 2001 to 2024, rents in Vancouver have skyrocketed 143 per cent.
It is therefore unsurprising that cost of living (56 per cent), health care (40 per cent), and housing affordability (34 per cent) were listed as the top issues for voters in British Columbia in an Ipsos poll from mid-September. But neither party is proposing anything that would come remotely close to remedying any of these problems.
The crisis of the system is reflected in the crisis of government finances. Having gutted corporate taxes for years at the behest of the corporations, the B.C. government can no longer pay for the services that workers require. But working-class people who are dealing with an immense cost of living crisis cannot stomach cuts and any party promising cuts immediately loses support.
This is why Eby has racked up government debt, with the highest deficit per capita in the country at $13.8 billion. With credit agencies downgrading the province’s credit rating and rising bond yields causing an increase in borrowing costs, whichever party comes to power will be saddled with a gargantuan debt problem.
Both Doerkson and Eby are claiming they won’t cut social services and instead balance the budget through “growing the economy.” But this is a fairy tale. The magnitude of the debt crisis means that even the NDP will not be able to avoid the crisis any longer and will be forced to make deeper cuts—in spite of the fact that Eby is criticizing Doerkson for wanting to do precisely that.
Socialism or austerity
Whether it’s the Conservatives or the NDP that is elected, political turbulence in the province is not over. While both parties have stymied the development of their radical wings, this polarization in society cannot be stopped because it is the inevitable product of a system in crisis.
An example of this polarization to the left is Green Party leader, 25-year-old self described “eco-socialist,” Emily Lowan. Lowan has positioned herself as unapologetically antiestablishment, denouncing the “oligarchs,” “billionaires” and the “one per cent.” Based on this approach, the Green Party membership nearly doubled to over 10,000 members with a tenfold increase in members under 30.
Her first promise of the campaign is to implement universal childcare by 2031, making her campaign the only one that actually proposes something that would materially benefit working class people.
Lowan’s solution is a bold list of all sorts of taxes on the rich and corporations, which she justified stating: “This government must choose which side they’re on: the side of austerity and oligarchs, or the side of the working class.”
So far, Eby is relying on anti-Trump demagogy and a connection to Mark Carney to maintain himself in power. For example, when he announced the snap election, he stood behind a “Build B.C. strong” sign—which was a direct reference to Carney’s “Build Canada Strong” slogan. In the speech, Eby did not mention the leader of the opposition once, but mentioned Trump 19 times.
But this cannot cut across the class anger forever. For example, even though Lowan and the Green Party are only polling at around 12 per cent, Lowan’s personal approval rating is –9 per cent, higher than the approval rating of both Doerkson (–10 per cent) or Eby (–27 per cent). This is shocking considering that a large section of voters (43 per cent) don’t even know who Lowan is.
Revolutionary communists agree with Lowan that the rich and corporate elite must be made to pay. The question is how. We believe that we must be prepared to go all the way and question their right to own and control the wealth of our society.
Capitalism has failed. If the capitalists require us to suffer for them to make profit, then they have lost their right to rule. The only way out of this mess is with a genuine socialist policy that takes the wealth out of the hands of these billionaire parasites and places the working class in power. That is what the Revolutionary Communist Party fights for.
