Western Canada: What lies ahead for David Eby, B.C.’s new premier

Good morning. Wendy Cox here today.

The B.C. NDP made it official this week: David Eby will be sworn in as the province’s premier on Nov. 18. What lies ahead of him will make the ugliness of his path to the top job – the bitter challenge from a young environmentalist and the decision by the party establishment to disqualify her – seem like an autumn stroll.

Mr. Eby has already issued a non-specific plan of action for his first 100 days. He has pledged a halt on fossil-fuel expansion, although under outgoing Premier John Horgan the NDP government secured a $40-billion investment in the LNG Canada project in exchange for a series of subsidies. Mr. Eby has not said if those subsidies would be reconsidered and he has said the first phase of that project will proceed as planned.

With a crisis facing B.C.’s health care system – a shortage of nurses and family doctors, increasing wait-times for cancer care – Mr. Eby said in an interview with legislature reporter Justine Hunter that he plans to move forward “in a really aggressive and urgent way.”

Regarding the concern mounting over prolific offenders, a drumbeat amplified these past weeks by repeated questions from the Opposition Liberals, Mr. Eby told Justine the fix needs to come from Ottawa, though he hasn’t ruled out investments in mental-health programs and a new kind of involuntary rehabilitation facility for those who present a risk of harm to others.

The challenges facing Mr. Eby are arguably even more complicated, multi-faceted and daunting than those that faced his predecessor. John Horgan leaves the office with high public approval and a legacy that involves having competently steered the province through the unprecedented crisis of the pandemic. The leftover fallout, exacerbated by a brewing economic downturn, will be Mr. Eby’s to own.

The departing premier shared some frank insight with columnist Gary Mason in an exit interview published today about the difficulties of tackling such entrenched problems.

As Gary writes, Mr. Horgan candidly admitted that governments often have no hope of solving the big problems of the day – homelessness, high costs of housing, a crisis in health care – but can only chip away at them.

He says government can set targets, but the fact is “the public doesn’t care about your 10-point plan or your 50-point plan,” they want their issues addressed now.

“They want to know when they go to emergency there is going to be someone there to solve their problems, whatever they might be – period,” he says. But most of the big problems the province faces don’t have easy, magical solutions, otherwise they’d be fixed by now.

Mr. Horgan agreed it is one of the great paradoxes of public life: People say they want politicians to speak the truth, yet often assail them when they do.

Members of the Saskatchewan Party are also being assailed this week, but for reasons that were entirely avoidable. Backbench MLA Lyle Stewart invited former Saskatchewan cabinet minister and convicted wife killer Colin Thatcher to the legislature to, inexplicably, attend a Throne Speech that included touting his government’s law-and-order agenda.

As columnist Kelly Cryderman writes, initially, Mr. Stewart said the now-84-year-old Mr. Thatcher – found responsible of first-degree murder in the violent death of JoAnn Wilson in 1984 – was “a fine individual.” He added Mr. Thatcher had a tough life because of his many years in prison, not mentioning that Ms. Wilson’s life was ended at age 43. He noted Mr. Thatcher had a “right” to be in the legislature. Public Safety Minister Christine Tell also defended Mr. Thatcher’s invitation.

“He’s a citizen of our province who paid his debt to society,” Ms. Tell said. “That’s just the way it is,” she added, a seeming misunderstanding that the life sentence Mr. Thatcher was handed includes the standard requirement that he be under supervision until he dies.

By Thursday, and after a storm of controversy, Mr. Stewart was taking all the blame. Mr. Thatcher’s presence in the legislature, though, wasn’t so abhorrent to all his caucus colleagues that it prevented him from joining Mr. Stewart for tea at a social gathering.

Premier Scott Moe declined to apologize for any offence the invitation may have caused to anyone who may have noted that Saskatchewan’s rate of domestic violence is among the highest in the country.

Mr. Moe said it was unfortunate the incident distracted from the government’s agenda.

This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief James Keller. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.