by Harvey Oberfeld
May 8, 2023
Canadians are often quite smug when casting their gaze south to the political instability plaguing our American neighbours, where Donald Trump still challenges the 2020 Presidential Election result.
After all, WE live in a real democracy, where our leaders rule/govern and impose ideas/beliefs/rules/taxes on the population ONLY under a mandate granted them and their party by the voters in an election.
Not in BC.
It has been almost six months since MLA David Eby became Premier of British Colombia on Nov. 18, 2022 … given the top job by members of the NDP Party … NOT chosen by the voters, NOR as the result of a subsequent public mandate granted in an election after his partisan accession to the job.
Having a Premier ruling without an electoral mandate, announcing government policy changes, bringing in new laws and levying taxes … without EVER submitting his agenda/platform for public approval is worse … much worse … than having a sore loser, who did seek a top office in a vote, question an election result.
At least in the Excited States, in seeking the top job, Trump had been the Leader and had submitted himself to the electorate as leadership candidate again … before trying to govern without a public mandate.
Eby has NOT still not done that as Premier and his dictatorship has gone on far too long.
Let’s keep it real: no NDP MLA, enjoying the pay, perks, privileges of office, has had the guts … nor the principles … to challenge Eby’s one-man-rule without a public mandate for him or his policies or to govern.
And most of BC’s media have become little more than compliant, complacent government messengers, who have accepted Eby’s rebuff to democracy.
In the glory days of BCTV’s Newshour (before it became what I see now as just a weak, crappy, ethnic community promo outlet), we would have been going after Eby EVERY WEEK, asking WHY he is governing WITHOUT a public mandate?? WHEN will he allow voters to accept or reject HIM as Premier, and WHY has he/NDP denied the public the right to approve/reject HIS agenda, that is now being autocratically imposed on the people???
Eby’s un-endorsed GRIP on power make a mockery of the word “Democratic” in the NDP moniker.
The result for BC: billions of public dollars are being spent and allocated by an MLA acting as “Premier-Pretender”: delivering major policy pronouncements from on high and imposing them without any public mandate; increasing/adding taxes without any public endorsement of any proposed platform; impacting the lives of five million British Columbians; and, still, no signs that Eby has any intention of submitting himself or his policies” for public approval as “Premier in the near future.
BC is basically living under a dictatorship, ruled by a Premier who has NO PUBLIC MANDATE to hold his office.
What makes all this even stranger is that I believe Eby would win a mandate if he sought one. In fact, the longer he waits, the more his personal failings, political blunders, weaknesses and errors could make that more of a challenge. (Maybe that’s why the BC Liberals (oops …BC United) aren’t making this a big issue right now.)
But respect for democracy … not just power … should be paramount in BC.
It’s time the public, the Opposition … and any un-co-opted members of the media … began to seriously challenge, protest, and question: How long will the unmandated Eby dictatorship and autocratic rule in BC go on?
Harv Oberfeld
