B.C.’s NDP government is breathing a long, heavy sigh of relief after watching Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives come up short in the federal election.
The result staves off what was shaping up to be a major showdown between Premier David Eby’s administration and a potential federal Conservative government over crime and addictions policies that Poilievre intended to force upon the province.
It was all part of an openly hostile relationship between the two leaders — who never spoke, never met, never even ran backchannel conversations between senior staff; they just lobbed verbal grenades at each other in public.
So in that sense, the federal Liberal victory on Tuesday night was also a victory for the BC NDP.
A re-elected Liberal party keeps in place an already functional working relationship between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Eby. It also continues all the cabinet committees, task forces and other organizational working groups between Victoria and Ottawa to respond to the U.S. tariff threat.
“I'd like to offer my congratulations to Prime Minister Carney on his successful campaign, on his election both in his local constituency but also as prime minister of Canada,” Eby said Tuesday, using the opportunity to make a sly dig at Poilievre, who failed to win his Ottawa-area riding.
“I look forward to working with him on the priorities that I think all Canadians have right now, which is ensuring that we are standing up strong to the threat presented by Donald Trump, to our sovereignty, to our economy, to our jobs.”
The Carney victory means the status quo for the B.C. government.
Most of the Liberal housing, crime and addictions policies align squarely with the BC NDP — not a surprise, perhaps, since they essentially share the same urban voter base in the province now.
Carney’s new focus on growing the economy, while putting on the backburner climate targets, also dovetails nicely with Eby’s stated goal to fast-track new natural resource projects.
The federal Liberals have promised to begin building housing at a scale not seen since the Second World War, with a new Build Canada Homes corporation and billions of new dollars — initiatives long called for by Eby.
The Liberals have also pledged an east-to-west national electricity grid, which B.C. has been advocating for as it tries to upgrade its ties to Alberta in order to sell clean BC Hydro energy to that province. And Carney has laid out plans for new trade and energy corridors, part of an all-Canadian revitalization of the domestic economy away from the United States.
The first real test of the friendly Carney-Eby relationship will come when Carney starts to parcel out the billions in new federal funding, and whether he continues the longstanding tradition of giving special deals to Ontario and Quebec. Don’t do it, Eby warned Tuesday.
“This isn't unreasonable,” Eby said, repeating his calls for a population-based formula. “We're not asking for more. We're not asking for less, just asking for the same.”
The premier also cited immediate protections for B.C.’s softwood lumber industry, on par with how Ottawa invests and supports Ontario’s auto sector against the threat of tariffs.
That has not been the position of the federal government. But perhaps Carney will change it.
Eby is counting on Carney to be a better friend to British Columbians than his predecessor. The two leaders are starting from a positive place. We’ll see how long it lasts.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Glacier Media. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
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