Eby Loses Snap Election In British Columbia

Ten days ago, I brought up David Eby (pronounced E-B), Premier of British Columbia, who as the commentator in the YouTube embedded above puts it, decided to "copy Mark Carney's homework" and call a snap election in which he ran against Donald Trump. The result from yesterday's votimg was counterintuitive, at least if you think like Mark Carney:

David Eby’s snap election gamble has handed the B.C. Conservative Party a majority government, CTV News declared first Saturday night. /p>

Interim leader Lorne Doerkson’s party was leading or elected in 62 of the province’s 93 ridings when he gave his victory speech to a roaring crowd. /p>

“We are going to super-charge British Columbia,” he said. /p>

Doerkson will lead B.C.’s first Conservative government in nearly 100 years—while Eby announced he would step down as B.C. NDP leader.

Even in the short leadup to the election, the signs of its outcome were visible: Political pundits

are beginning to wonder if British Columbia Premier David Eby’s decision to call an election, to be held on Oct. 24, will rank among the greatest blunders in Canadian political history. That will depend, of course, on what British Columbians decide.

The idea that this may have been one of "the greatest blunders in Canadian political history" is commonplace, but nobody seems to be specifying just what the blunder precisely was. Some point to his clumsy handling of how his kids went to a subsidized $10-a-day daycare not available to most British Columbians, but even an average candidate could probably sweep that aside.

Something more basic was wrong, which so far, even conservative Canadian commentators are missing. Let's look at a recent question posed to Mark Carney, when he was in Turkey of all places:

At 23:50, a reporter asks,

I want to ask you about the repeated allegations from the United States that we are interfering in their elections. This is a serious accusation, and it's not a one-off. We had the fact sheet, we had the envoy, we have Navarro, and there's a risk that this normalizes, that this is a valid concern. I'd like you to address whether there is an ounce of merit to their claims, and if there isn't are you willing to call this ojt as gaslighting or scapegoating? . . . One thing we've seen over the past year is that you can see a narrative starting, and then it has consequences later. Should Canadians be concerned that [if] there's adverse results for the Republicans in the midterms, that somehow we're going to be blamed, and I don't know, tariffed -- like do you think this has serious potential to become a -- justification for more tariffs?

The question itself is the answer. The subtext is the elephant in the room: the reporter is basically asking, "Hey, Mr Prime Minister, you've been tugging on Superman's cape. Do you really tnink this is a good idea?" I tnink this is the one thing behind a lot of Canadian thinking that even conservative Canadians are hesitant to express: if you get the US pissed off, there are consequences, which we're already seeing. Canada lost over 100,000 jobs in August and September, while Ottawa is still out to lunch over the high-rofile Stelco layoffs.

Let's localize this to British Columbia. Lumber, much of which is exported to the US, is a major industry there:

More than 20 lumber mills closed across B.C. over the last three years. Billions in wood products affected by U.S. tariffs. Tens of thousands of jobs lost in Canada.

The state of B.C.'s forestry industry is, by most accounts, dire.

While there are many factors driving the decline, recent U.S. tariffs haven't helped.

But Donald Trump is hardly the first U.S. president whose government has imposed steep duties on Canadian lumber. The tariffs are the latest chapter in a dispute that's been going on for more than four decades.

When David Eby tried to call a snap election and make it a referendum on Trump, it blew up in his face. I get the impression that Canadians generally are nervous when politicians, especially Carney, tickle the dragon's tail. Canadians are excessively deferential and polite (except to Americans), and they seem to be uncomfortable about bringing this up, but they're clearly getting nervous, and it looks like tney'll vote nervous when they get a chance.

Add to that the visuals. Eby on TV is a little too gangly. Carney is even worse. His head is a little too big for his body, and he's homorless. The closest he came to a smile in the interview above was the occasional smirk. There's zero charisma. The only thing he has going for him is that the opposition is, if anything, even less charismatic. Poor Canada.