By Cheryl Jahn

Eby set to establish government

Oct 29, 2024 | 4:24 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – “I’m glad to be here. It was an eventful campaign.”

That’s how Premier-Designate David Eby addressed the media Tuesday morning, following the release of Elections BC’s results that have placed his NDP government into a majority government.

“Our goal here is to make sure that this place behind me works for British Columbians,” he told reporters.

But BC Conservative Leader John Rustad maintains his position from election night, regardless of a majority government.

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“Our objective is going to be to depose, David Eby and his government, to look to bring it to an end as quickly as possible.”

Once again, there is no representation north of Hope to take a Cabinet seat. A picture Premier-Designate Eby is well aware of.

“I do see an urban-rural divide in the election results is very concerning to me. We need to govern for the entire province. We need to represent the entire province. And that’s what we’re going to do.”

“It’s not something new necessarily,” says Beach. “It happens from time to time in Ottawa and Victoria when there are large regions of the country that aren’t represented in Cabinet because the governing party doesn’t have representation from those areas.”

It’s a political picture Rustad says he is all too aware of, and expects there will be considerable frustration once again.

Eby was asked if he would consider a Conservative as Speaker.

“I haven’t had the opportunity to work with all of the people who are elected as Conservatives in the recent election, but my commitment to every MLA that was elected is: if you share our values around making sure this is a welcoming province for everyone that’s going to fight hate and racism, these are non-negotiables for us and we’re happy to work with you to make sure that the legislature behind me works for British Columbians.”

It’s not unheard of and there is precedent in recent history.

“The NDP Green minority government in 2017 chose then B.C. Liberal MLA Darryl Plecas to be the Speaker in the Legislature,” says Chris Beach, Political Science Instructor, Chris Beach. “So that’s a definite possibility and one that the new razor-thin majority NDP government.”

“I think that would be a mistake to do that,” says Rustad. “We want to make it as difficult as possible for him to move forward with his agenda. We want to make sure that if he is moving things forward, that it takes into perspective the things that we want to be able to move forward. If he’s looking for any kind of support.”

In the meantime, Eby says, now that he has the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor, he will proceed to establish his Cabinet