Premier David Eby expressed extreme frustration more than a year ago when he was repeatedly asked if he was going to call an early election.

“I don’t know how many times I can say it, I am committed to a fixed election date in B.C.,” he said in December 2022, shortly after swearing in his first cabinet.

“They want our government to take action, they’ve not said to me they want an election,” the premier added in February 2023.

“We talked to a lot of people [and] not one person said, ‘I really hope you call a general election soon,’” Eby deadpanned four months later.

New Democrats, at the time, framed the questions as outrageous nonsense from out-of-touch media, hell-bent on stirring up trouble. Why call an election, they asked, when the new premier has been gifted an enormous lead in the polls from a popular predecessor, billions in surplus cash in the provincial treasury and half a term left in the government’s mandate?

Oh, what a difference two years makes.

The election the BC NDP faces now is far more difficult than the one it could have chosen to face 20 months ago.

The right-wing parties have merged into one foe, eliminating any hope of a vote-split. The new premier’s bold reforms have failed to produce the promised visible........

© BIV