If presumptive new BC NDP leader David Eby is thinking of calling an early election next spring, he would be wise to take a deep dive into last Saturday’s municipal election results.
He would see a political landscape rattled by widespread voter-caused earthquakes that should give politicians of all stripes pause for concern.
More than three dozen mayors were booted from their positions, whole councils were replaced and many incumbent councillors were tossed aside.
The carnage was felt everywhere, from large cities like Vancouver and Surrey to small towns like Sechelt and Fernie and everything in between.
This was not the case of the left beating the right, or vice versa. The only pattern that has emerged is that in so many places voters were a cranky lot who wanted the incumbent gone.
In Vancouver, for example, the center-right ABC party’s seven candidates were elected to council, plus it captured the mayor’s office.
But in Langford, outside of Victoria on Vancouver Island, the voters replaced the entire pro-development council and its long-serving mayor and replaced them with candidates who made the environment and social conditions their priorities.
In some municipal contests, issues like crime and housing affordability were surely top of mind for many voters. But that doesn’t seem to explain the widespread rising up against so many mayors.
Instead, I think as we come out of a historic pandemic that turned society upside down, a restless electorate is feeling less reliant on government and more desirous of change at so many levels.
Judging by the defeat of many mayors and councilors who liked to engage in infighting and petty squabbling in their political jobs, people also seem fed up with that kind of behavior.
Call it crankiness, frustration, anger or whatever: voters are fed up with the status quo.
Which brings us to the next election, at either the provincial or federal level.
The public mood in evidence in last weekend’s municipal contests is unlikely to change dramatically in the short term. How long it will continue to hover over the political arena remains unclear.
Given this mood, it would seem unwise to test the electorate with an election that is not required and is called for purely political expediency.
If Eby (or whoever is premier) were to call a snap election amid this kind of widespread “throw the bums out” mentality, it could end in disaster.
I am sure many of the mayors who lost (hello Stu Young in Langford and Darryl Walker in White Rock) were shocked at their ouster. The unthinkable can easily happen when people are angry and fed up.
In retrospect, the BC NDP must be thanking their lucky stars they called an unneeded election back in 2020, before the public mood shifted to one of frustration and wanting change.
Back then, the voters gave the NDP a massive and historic majority and the ability to govern until 2024.
As tempting as it may be, asking those same voters to deliver the same outcome in the near future could be akin to walking into a political buzz saw.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global BC.
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