Image Credit: Flickr / Government of B.C.

By James Peters

Two and Out

PETERS: NDP, Conservatives still desperate for power in Victoria

May 30, 2025 | 12:30 PM

NINE MONTHS AFTER THE ELECTION, the major players in Victoria are still grasping desperately at power.

On one side, there is the BC NDP, governing with the slimmest of majorities.

They just passed Bill 15, the piece of legislation that gives cabinet extraordinary powers to fast-track projects the government considers provincially significant.

It’s not only the opposition Conservatives who have been raising alarms about this bill.

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Indigenous organizations say the legislation tramples over their rights and flies against the Eby government’s apparent support for UNDRIP.

When the whole point is fast-tracking, it makes sense that the government feels a comprehensive process of Indigenous consultation is counter-productive.

That doesn’t make it the right thing to do, though.

Even business organizations have spoken out against this legislation that, ostensibly, should benefit their members the most.

When the speaker is casting votes to break a tie, David Eby’s ability to govern is tenuous at best.

Bill 15 is an effort to gather up as much power as possible without those pesky checks and balances like environmental assessments, committee scrutiny and votes in the legislature.

On the other side, though, is another party apparently just as obsessed with the ring of power dangling outside its grasp.

During a vote this week, NDP MLA Rick Glumac joined remotely with a blurred Zoom background.

MLAs are allowed to vote remotely, but not if they have a virtual background on their screens.

Conservative leader John Rustad argued Glumac’s vote shouldn’t have counted. The end result may have been B.C. being thrown into yet another election cycle.

Two problems with that.

First, blurred-background-versus-virtual-background is such a granular technicality that even pointing it out is absurdly anti-productive.

Second, dissolving the legislature for an election right now, just nine months after the last one and two months after the federal vote, doesn’t help our province stand ready to respond to Donald Trump’s insanity.

It’s about the Conservatives seeing the faintest glimmer of opportunity to grab power.

If the government falls on a matter of confidence during this term, let it be because it actually doesn’t have the confidence of the house, not on a hair-splitting technicality.

Get to work.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.