Vaughn Palmer: If David Eby cannot regain momentum, he risks being only the third B.C. premier to never win an electoral mandate

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VICTORIA — Premier David Eby staged a pre-election event this week that targeted the supposed untrustworthiness of B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad on abortion and reproductive health.

Eby spoke against Rustad. So did his wife, Dr. Cailey Lynch. Then came family friend Christine Boyle, speaking in her capacity as the NDP candidate in one of the Vancouver ridings.

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Their common theme was that despite Rustad saying he would not change access to abortion and other reproductive rights, the voters should not believe a word he says.

Then the premier proceeded to demonstrate that neither should the public have put any stock in what he, Eby, has been saying in defence of the carbon tax for the past two years.

Eby, in answer to the first question from a reporter, largely abandoned his support for the carbon tax.

With one, brutal, cynical stroke he repudiated his defence of the tax as key to the fight against climate change and everything he’s said about critics of the tax as being climate change deniers.

In abandoning the tax with nine days to go before the official start of the election campaign, Eby revealed a lot about the current state of political affairs in the province — more, probably, than he intended to let out.

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