David Eby (pictured above), the premier of British Columbia for nearly four years, suffered a major political defeat Oct. 24, when his New Democratic Party (NDP) lost the provincial election to the Conservative Party, led by Lorne Doerkson.
British Columbia's fixed election dates do not require the province to wait four years between elections. The next election was scheduled for October 2028, but the province's parliamentary system allows the premier to ask the lieutenant governor to dissolve the legislature and call an election before then.
Eby was so confident in his province's longtime liberal leanings that he called an early election.
Arguing that British Columbia needed a fresh election to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies and threats against Canada, Eby went to the lieutenant governor on Sept. 22, requested that the legislature be dissolved and the election be set for Oct. 24.
He hoped to increase his party's power while the Conservatives were struggling with internal disagreements, but the strategy backfired.
Voters were more concerned about the high cost of living, jobs and access to health care than Eby's warnings about Trump. Preliminary results reflecting nearly 1.8 million votes counted showed the Conservative Party received 48.06% of the vote (862,688 votes), defeating Eby's New Democratic Party, which received 37.37% (670,811 votes). The Green Party garnered 10.97% (196,896 votes).
The Conservatives led the NDP by 191,877 votes, a margin of about 10.7 percentage points. It is the first time the party has won in the province in nearly a century.
United behind Doerkson, the Conservatives won 64 seats, compared with 27 for the NDP, giving them a strong majority in the provincial legislature and ending nearly nine years of NDP government in the province.
Eby has accepted responsibility for the defeat and announced he would resign as NDP leader.
Alberta's Brian Rushfeldt says he has noticed a political shift across the country.
"People are waking up across Canada to the harm that the socialist NDP-liberal governments are doing in every area," he reports.
He thinks British Columbia's election bodes well for Alberta.
"Now with the conservative government with a huge majority, I think we'll see numerous changes for the good of the country, but certainly for the good of Alberta," Rushfeldt says. "It's like we just became a new country in a sense for Alberta because we have now access to the West Coast for our pipelines, our trading goods because we got rid of the socialists who restricted everything that they could restrict."
He thinks the "awakening" that has happened in British Columbia "will carry on into the federal election."
Canada's next scheduled federal election is Oct. 15, 2029, according to Elections Canada. However, Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney could call an earlier election by asking the governor general to dissolve Parliament, allowing Canadians to vote before 2029.
But since the Liberals secured a majority in April, Carney can generally pass legislation without opposition-party support, making an early election less necessary than it would be for a minority government.
An early election would be a political choice and potentially a political gamble.
