EDITORIAL – Turmoil in OneBC is more welcome news for Eby’s New Democrats
MLA Dallas Brodie (left) speaks in Legislature. (Image: BC Hansard)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
IT’S NOT EASY being a political leader in this province. Now Dallas Brodie, who created the OneBC party, is out of a job as leader. She’s been removed by the party’s board of directors, though she insists she’s still in charge.
But the other OneBC MLA, Tara Armstrong, says she no longer has any confidence in Brodie’s leadership. The future of the party is now in doubt, since two elected members are required for a party to have status in the B.C. legislature.
Brodie, of course, is a former BC Conservative who was booted from that party’s caucus. Just a couple of weeks ago, John Rustad, who kicked Brodie out of the Conservatives, was himself ditched as BC Conservative leader.
This must all be music to the ears of David Eby’s NDP government, since bad news for other parties is good news for the NDP. Eby himself is not exactly Mr. Popularity. A recent Angus Reid Institute survey found him to be ranked near the bottom of Canada’s premiers in terms of job performance.
The controversial Brodie’s eviction will be greeted with pleasure by her opponents and anger by her supporters, who regard her as someone who speaks her mind with clarity, something they believe to be badly needed in B.C. politics.
None will be happier than the NDP. Anything that splits the right is good for the left. The turmoil in both OneBC and the BC Conservatives couldn’t come at a better time for the ruling party.
Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
This is not your father’s NDP, Eby is pulling his party to the middle with his push for natural resources and is sure to wrestling many slightly centre-right voters away from the conservatives who are self imploding Right now (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun).
If the next leader of the BC Conservatives is a die hard conservative then this will completely open the door for Eby to the centre right, similar to how it allowed Glen Clark to seize much of this space in ’96. If the BC Conservatives elect a more progressive conservative leader such as local Elenore Sturko, then it will become much more interesting at the centre to centre-right space and the winner of that space wins the election.
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BC residents were so close to electing this unorganized bunch (dare I say politicians) to lead the government. The problem with the right wing is they always know their right.
Eby has moved the NDP towards the centre where I live.
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Sorry/not sorry, but the David Eby government is a complete failure. From rampant social problems and homelessness due to growing government-promoted drug addiction thanks to free drugs and wet so-called recovery/low barrier housing (good on Kamloops Council for pushing back on that one), to complete fiscal ineptitude, and now the total whiff (intentional perhaps, due to his direct involvement in drafting DRIPA) on protection of private property rights and title. This government is an outright assault on British Columbians. Canada and British Columbia have just endured a lost decade under the Trudeau Liberals, and we are now approaching in BC a decade of double-whammy with the BC NDP. The decade of Harcourt/Clark/Dosanjh NDP of the ’90’s took a long time to recover from as well. When will British Columbians learn that Socialist governments do not work? This is not a Centrist government in any way, and the sooner gone the better.
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