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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It remains to be seen for all those continuing to sing the virtues of carbon taxes to be completely, finally, honest and truthful about their purpose. Proponents of carbon taxes rarely (if ever) do so.
Euphemisms are used - like 'reduce our dependency on fossil fuels', and a 'putting a price on pollution' - but what does this actually mean?
Plainly:
Carbon taxation is designed to penalize every Canadian driving somewhere in an ICE vehicle.
Carbon taxation is designed to penalize every Canadian flying somewhere in an airplane.
Carbon taxation is designed to penalize every Canadian for heating/cooling their homes/businesses directly with natural gas , petroleum, or coal products (except in Atlantic Canada).
Carbon taxation is designed to penalize every Canadian for heating/cooling their homes/businesses with electricity derived from natural gas, petroleum, or coal products (except in Atlantic Canada).
Carbon taxation is designed to penalize Canadian businesses, governments, & NGO's who manufacture/source goods using machines/equipment powered by natural gas, petroleum, or coal products.
Carbon taxation is designed to penalize Canadian businesses, governments, and NGO's who deliver or are delivered goods and services using vehicles, machines, and equipment powered by natural gas, petroleum, or coal products.
The purpose of carbon taxation is to urge Canadians, Canadian businesses, Canadian governments, and Canadian NGO's to avoid as much as possible using natural gas, petroleum, or coal products to provide for any life necessity or optional economic activity described above, including eating & drinking, creating/maintaining/using transportation vehicles and the roads that carry them (including planes when not airborne), building/maintaining goods and equipment, and goods/service delivery of any kind - public, private, or NGO.
Of course, all Canadians need these things, and many Canadians provide these things.
Many Canadians have a choice on many of these things (or are exempted for political purposes).
Most of them do not have much choice on many of these things.
Alternative choices are largely unavailable, unaffordable, or impractical for many (most) Canadians.
Anything with carbon tax applied to it increases the cost to whoever creates/delivers/purchases/uses it.
These increased costs are, with rare exception, passed down the supply chain from creator to user - and the more steps in between creator to user, the more the increased costs are compounded.
Is it any wonder that Canadian cost of living is WAY up and Canadian economic activity is WAY down?
(Yes, I know there are other factors).
After all, that WAS and IS the desired outcome of carbon taxation - to reduce and eventually eliminate all economic activity powered by natural gas, petroleum, and coal products!
From that perspective, carbon taxation in Canada has been an unqualified success!
All that remains is to continue to increase carbon taxation rates until all undesirable economic activity becomes so expensive as to be completely disincentivized and eliminated from our economy- the final solution to our carbon problem!
Canadians should be grateful to be poorer, hungrier, sicker in mind and body, and less mobile - we are saving the planet! It's inconceivable Canadians should be angry with such a success story!
The only hitch is that most of the 'acceptable' alternatives to power our planet themselves require significant energy inputs from carbon-based sources to build and maintain the capacity to generate - including hydro, solar, wind, and even nuclear energy - the facilities and equipment for 'alternative energy production' are not conjured up out of cleaner thin air without them.
I'm sure all these bugs will be worked out soon. Or we can eat the bugs and burn the bugs to heat our caves until enough of us perish so that our 'carbon footprint' has been reduced to tolerable levels.
Thank GOC we have MAID to make that easier for Canadians.
I have zero issue with governments doing a reversal if the policy was ill conceived in the first place as Eby has done recently. Admitting that you were wrong and fixing it should be the aim of every political party and politician everywhere instead of doubling down on your mistakes only to save face and your precious ego. This has been the Trudeau Liberal MO since he came to power and that is hardly a recipe for increasing your popularity. Owning your errors just doesn’t seem to be in a politicians DNA.