David Eby Fuels Early Election Speculation

British Columbia Premier David Eby spurred talk of an early election as he laid out the choice voters would face.

“I don’t have any election announcement to make,” Eby told reporters at a media availability in Surrey on Wednesday.

“I do recognize that it’s important for British Columbians to be able to have a say about the direction of our province given the incredible disruption that Donald Trump has brought to our economy and to our politics in the province, but I’m not making any announcement today about an election date.”

The next provincial election isn’t scheduled until the fall of 2028, but in recent weeks Eby has declined to rule out calling the election early.

On Wednesday he confirmed that the NDP has lined up Cheryl Oates, who until the end of August served as his interim chief of staff, to manage the campaign whenever it happens.

The possibility of an early election has been a reality since 2024, when the NDP won a one-seat majority in the legislature, Eby said.

“We have continually told Elections BC, I tell my caucus all the time, that we need to be election ready,” he said. One of the factors, he added, is the health of some of the BC NDP’s MLAs. Vancouver-Strathcona MLA Joan Phillip died in August, and two more NDP MLAs have cancer.

Eby has not yet called a byelection to replace Phillip.

A different byelection is set for Sept. 26 in Abbotsford-Mission, where the candidates include Conservative Party of BC Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay and former NDP cabinet minister Pam Alexis, as well as representatives of the BC Greens, CentreBC and Libertarian party.

The race will be close, Eby predicted.

It comes as the Conservative caucus has shrunk to 28 MLAs, down more than a third from the 44 elected two years ago, with several of the departees citing a lack of confidence in Findlay’s leadership. Seven former Conservatives have announced they will sit as part of a new party that doesn’t yet have a name and is led on an interim basis by Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar.

Aside from the disarray and volatility of the opposition, the premier might also be encouraged by recent polls. On Wednesday the Angus Reid Institute found his approval rating had shot up to 41 per cent, a 10-point recovery from its last survey. An Ipsos poll released this week found support for the NDP at 45 per cent, a 10-point lead over the Conservatives.

The timing is unlikely to get better for Eby and the NDP, though he may want to wait until after the Abbotsford-Mission byelection and the province’s municipal elections, which are scheduled for Oct. 17.

Or it could come sooner. Political consultant Brad Zubyk, who was former Conservative Party of BC leader John Rustad’s chief of staff, posted on X that the chance is “greater than zero” that the NDP will go as soon as Saturday to make sure the campaign is underway before Findlay has a chance to lose the byelection.

A spokesperson for Elections BC, which runs and oversees the province's election, confirmed in an email the organization has "determined we need to assume an increased readiness state" in part due to "recent public commentary and speculation." The agency says it will be inquiring about the availability of spaces for district electoral offices and voting places, restocking supplies and preparing to recruit election officials.

It was also clear from Eby’s remarks that he had considered what the defining issue of a potential election would be: the threat from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

“I’m sure that’s front of mind for many British Columbians as they consider the impact on their jobs, on their economic opportunities in the province, and there are two very different proposals on the table from the major political parties in the province,” Eby said.

He said the NDP has been working with the federal government to strengthen the province and the country, while the Conservatives had a “secret” meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra and have advocated returning U.S. alcohol to B.C. shelves without getting anything in return.

In July the Conservative Party of BC announced Findlay arranged for three caucus members to meet with Hoekstra and other U.S. officials “to establish diplomatic relations with B.C.’s largest trading partner.”

Eby said he believed the difference between the two parties couldn’t be “more stark.”