B.C. NDP leader David Eby launches election campaign a day early in key battleground

New Democrat Leader David Eby kicked off his British Columbia election campaign a day early on Friday, pointing the party's campaign bus straight to the Metro Vancouver city of Surrey, where both the New Democrats and B.C. Conservatives are expected to spend much time in the key battleground.

The fixed election date of Oct. 19 means the campaign doesn't officially start until Saturday.

About 75 supporters greeted Eby as he stopped at a family corn and onion farm just off Highway 10, where a barbecue was underway.

“It is wonderful to be here with you in Surrey, with all these families, with my family here,” he said. “I’m so excited to be starting the campaign right here in the beautiful City of Surrey.”

Eby said he will be “laser focused” on issues of priority for people, including affordable housing and keeping rates low for car insurance, electricity and child care.

He said he started his campaign in Surrey because the city represents the challenges facing the province, including a growing population, service pressures, housing costs and affordability overall.

“In many ways Surrey is the epicentre of the challenges we face," said Eby.

Eby boarded the bus on Friday in downtown Vancouver with his infant daughter, Gwen, in a baby carrier, accompanied by his wife, Dr. Cailey Lynch and their two other children.

His NDP-orange campaign bus is covered in photos of people, with Eby standing in the centre, along with slogans that say, "action for you," "homes you can afford," and "better health care."

Both B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad and Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau spoke to municipal leaders at the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities Convention in Vancouver on Friday, just as Eby was launching his election campaign.

Climate change and the carbon tax were among the issues that were top of mind.

Rustad told delegates that he would get rid of the carbon tax and the low carbon fuel emissions standard, saying the moves would improve affordability.

"It's making us uncompetitive. It's a huge cost structure, and the Conservative Party of British Columbia is committed to getting rid of those costs and returning that money back to people to be able to deal with the affordability," he said.

His statement comes just a week after Eby said that if Ottawa dropped the legal requirement for carbon pricing, then his New Democrat government would also drop the tax on consumers.

Both politicians appear to now be at odds with local leaders.

Delegates at the convention passed an emergency motion on Friday saying Eby's proposed change poses "a threat to the effectiveness of the province's climate strategy as an essential tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition the province to a low-carbon economy."

The municipalities called for a "modernized carbon pricing framework" that includes a portion of revenue for local governments to put toward climate initiatives.

Furstenau told reporters after her speech that there is a disconnect between what the other provincial leaders are promising related to the carbon tax and what municipalities are experiencing, and the significant costs that come from climate-related events.

"I'm worried about politicians who don't seem to understand the economic and fiscal impacts of climate change," she said.

"And who instead want to sell people a notion that removing the one tax that we return as a rebate ... they have sold as though it's the problem, it's the root of the problem that we're seeing."

Rustad has been facing pressure from the New Democrats over past social media posts that question climate change science.

"The climate change issue is real," Rustad told the delegates at the convention.

"Man is having an impact on our climate, there's no question there. But taxing people into poverty is not going to change the weather. We need to take a different approach in terms of how we address climate."

Furstenau said the other party leaders are offering "a lot of fear and a lot of anger and a lot of finger pointing" and a minority government would mean "built-in accountability" for the party in power.

"We have a real opportunity in British Columbia in this election to not give any party all of the power, to not have a winner-take-all outcome," she said. "We see when we have majority governments in this province, they do not deliver on what they promise, but they do a whole bunch of things that they didn't promise, and they do it without being able to be held accountable by the legislature or by the people of B.C."

Eby spoke to local politicians on Thursday, as they presented a laundry list of concerns for the provincial government at the meeting, from homelessness to the overdose crisis and more funding to support growing pressures on municipalities.  

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.