Rob Shaw: B.C. NDP continues fine tradition of panicked flip flops

From the carbon tax to decriminalization and, now, involuntary care, David Eby appears to be riding a rapidly shifting mood ahead of the imminent election.

By: Rob Shaw

For the last two years, every time B.C. Premier David Eby was asked about the carbon tax — and he was asked often, sometimes daily, by his political opponents — he promised to protect the contentious measure to his dying political breath.

“Let me be clear, we will not back down,” Eby told a crowd of cheering supporters at the B.C. NDP convention in Victoria last November.

“If, and God forbid, the rest of the country abandons the fight against climate change, B.C. will stand strong because we know what the costs are.”

B.C. was the first province to bring in a carbon tax in 2008. And Eby was the last premier in Canada to support it. He stood toe-to-toe for months with federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, pushing back against the “axe the tax” campaign by describing Poilievre as living in a “baloney factory.”

But a funny thing is happening in British Columbia just a few days before the start of the provincial election campaign, with the B.C. Conservatives surging in the polls to a statistical tie with the governing New Democrats.

The B.C. NDP is starting to actually see that final political breath hovering in the air like the first frosty exhalation on an early fall day heralding the winter to come.

And, without warning last week, 24 minutes into an unrelated press conference, in response to a random question by a reporter, Eby stunned the province by pulling his support for the carbon tax.

“Our commitment is that if the federal government decides to remove the legal backstop requiring us to have a consumer carbon tax in British Columbia, we will end the consumer carbon tax in British Columbia,” he said.

Reaction was swift.

“David Eby’s sudden reversal on the carbon tax is a desperate attempt to salvage his sinking political ship,” said B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad, who has long called for an end to the carbon tax.

“He’s flip-flopped on this because he’s losing ground.”

It’s not the only file the NDP has flipped and/or flopped on in the last few months.

The NDP pushed B.C. to become the first province to decriminalize personal possession of illicit drugs like cocaine, heroin, meth and fentanyl in 2023. Almost immediately, public drug use worsened, street disorder rose, vandalism and crime increased, and public safety ballooned into a hot-button issue.

After 16 months of intense political pressure, and calls for change from everyone from police to health-care professionals, Eby pulled the plug on the idea in April, reversing course to recriminalize drug use in public places.

On Sunday, Eby also dramatically changed his government’s position on involuntary care for those with addictions and mental-health challenges, announcing new secure housing facilities to lock up those suffering on the street who are a risk to themselves until they can be treated.

It’s the third time the NDP has pitched involuntary care; the first two efforts were abandoned amidst backlash from civil liberties groups, addictions specialists and Indigenous leaders. This latest push came six days before the start of the election campaign.

What do the carbon tax, decriminalization and involuntary care all have in common?

They are policies that the B.C. and federal Conservatives fiercely oppose and frequently attack. They’re also policies on which Conservatives are winning, handily, at the NDP’s expense.

Has this caused the governing party to panic out of fear of losing an election? Or are the B.C. NDP just reading the mood, and pivoting policy appropriately?

It’s a question swirling through B.C. political circles.

“I find it quite humorous actually that David Eby is actually running against his own government policy,” said Rustad.

“This sudden change and the flip-flop around, I don’t think that the public is looking for a premier who is that wishy-washy and flipping back and forth on its policies.”

Conservatives launched a new ad with David Eby’s face on a weather vane.

New Democrats insist their moves have always been part of a larger plan — in the case of the carbon tax, borne out of a simmering frustration with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s home heating fuel exemptions, combined with reading the public mood over affordability concerns.

But the pivot is complicated by years of the NDP arguing that the carbon tax was affordable because it returned more money in rebates than people paid in the tax. New Democrats have described any political party that suggested otherwise as either a climate denier, fear-mongerer, or both.

On each issue, there is a long track record from the NDP of sanctimoniously lecturing critics for many months, if not years, before begrudgingly changing direction at the last minute.

In that way, the B.C. election campaign appears to be shaping up as more of a character and judgment test than a policy debate.

The NDP and Conservatives now have matching positions on decriminalization, involuntary care, and the carbon tax. They each got there, though, in very different ways. And who the public actually trusts to see those policies through could be an important ballot box issue on Oct. 19.

Rob Shaw has spent more than 16 years covering B.C. politics. He now reports for CHEK News and writes for Glacier Media, as well as the website Northern Beat. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast and YouTube show Political Capital, and the weekly political correspondent for CBC Radio’s All Points West and Radio West programs.

He recently published a webinar primer video for the BC election, available on-demand here. You can reach him at rob@robshawnews.com.

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