David Eby’s cabinet is strikingly short of scientific expertise. Josie Osborne trained as a fisheries biologist, while Bowinn Ma was an engineer who managed construction projects at Vancouver International Airport. Other influential ministers are professional politicians, lawyers, or community activists—not people whose careers required them to learn science.
That absence of expertise may help explain the government’s refusal to act on the expert consensus: avoiding catastrophic warming requires the near-elimination of fossil-fuel combustion, not the construction of infrastructure designed to prolong it for decades.
Eby promotes LNG because he has decided that immediate economic rewards matter more than long-term climate stability. His government does not openly deny climate science. It does something more politically convenient: it claims that massive fossil-fuel expansion is somehow compatible with meaningful climate action.
The party that once presented environmental protection as a defining principle now appears to believe its survival depends on accommodating multinational corporations. In doing so, it risks satisfying no one. Progressives see betrayal; conservatives see an unconvincing imitation of their own policies.
The Fraser Institute, a reliable tool of corporate power, ranks Eby among Canada’s worst premiers. Public opinion suggests that many British Columbians are arriving at an equally unforgiving verdict.
British Columbia’s next election is expected in 2028, but David Eby will not remain NDP leader long enough to contest it. He inherited John Horgan’s commanding majority and then came perilously close to losing power in 2024. Since that near-defeat, his political standing has continued to deteriorate, leaving the party with an increasingly urgent question: how long can it afford to keep him?
The contrast between the two leaders could hardly be sharper. Horgan built loyalty through political instinct, warmth, and durable personal relationships. Eby projects the detachment of an aloof technocrat—more comfortable imposing policy than earning trust from colleagues, party members, or voters.
As dissatisfaction spreads within the NDP, doubts about Eby’s political judgment and electoral appeal will deepen. Unless he reverses the government’s decline, pressure for a leadership change will not merely grow; it may become irresistible well before 2028.
Categories: NDP BC
in-sights.ca 
On Facebook, Lew Edwardson wrote:
The same question should be asked of David Eby.
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Couldn’t happen to a more deserving opportunist!
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Hello Norm – Compelling thought …. who might be contenders for
leader? Cheers, Roger
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A good question. As Sean Holman—now a University of Victoria professor—showed in his video WHIPPED, party leaders exercise tight control over their MLAs. Those who refuse to toe the party line may see their political careers abruptly ended. As a result, what politicians admit privately is often very different from what they are willing—or permitted—to say publicly.
I know that some MLAs and political staffers are uncomfortable with Eby. That unpopularity, combined with weak polling numbers, ensures his time as premier will not be long.
I expect the momentum for change will build through the next year, and Eby will decide to “spend more time with family” by early 2027.
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I think those conversations likely happened already, around the time Eby flip flopped repeatedly on DRIPA. At the point where he publicly acknowledged he didn’t have the votes to pass his proposed amendments, the subtext was that there had been some frank discussions with dissenting MLAs. That probably resulted in an exit strategy for Mr. Eby, and since that time he has shown a closer relationship with the federal Liberals than his own party. Not a lot of cabinet ministers are interested in carrying water for him anymore.
I would not be surprised at all to see him resign in 2027, and then turn up as a Liberal candidate in the next federal election.
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Eby’s sad fizzling out has come as such an unexpected outcome, given the savvy and sound judgement that he demonstrated in a fiercely competitive leadership contest just four years ago.
Oh, wait …
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Eby may leave the scene, but I doubt that the NDP will return to its former self. Supporting corporate interests seems to be the name of the game now, party principles be damned.
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