Even by B.C.’s traditional standards for wild and wacky politics, 2024 was an extraordinarily bizarre year. In just a few months, the province saw the collapse of a political dynasty, the meteoric rise of a brand-new force and a voter backlash in the Oct. 19 election that almost cost Premier David Eby his government.
January
The year opens with the NDP government reeling over concern that decriminalizationis making drug use and public safety worse in downtown cores — an issue that ends up dominating the entire year.
The B.C. Supreme Court refuses to let the government implement new legislation to ban public drug use. “The public is tired of this,” says Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog. He’s right.
Eby fires his children’s minister, Mitzi Dean, after First Nations leaders called for her removal following the case of two Indigenous children who lacked proper ministry staff supervision and were tortured by their foster parents.
Polls show the upstart BC Conservatives beginning to eclipse the BC United in the polls. Informal talks about some sort of co-operation or a merger go nowhere. The NDP hold a comfortable lead but with high voter dissatisfaction on health care, public safety and affordability — a foreshadowing of things to come.
February
BC Conservative Leader John Rustad starts flip-flopping on UNDRIP, saying he’d repeal the law he once supported. Questions about his position persist through the election.
Post-Secondary Education Minister Selina Robinson is fired from cabinet after making comments about Palestine that the Muslim community say were offensive. She later quits the NDP, retires from politics and writes a book criticizing Eby’s failure to defend her.
Lands Minister Nathan Cullen announces he’s abandoning changes to the Lands Actthat would have given co-statutory decision-making on Crown land to Indigenous nations. Rural communities express concern about the impact to public land and their properties. Cullen admits consultation was botched. The Conservatives use the issue to drum up voters in the election.
The NDP tables a budget with a record-setting $8-billion deficit and delivers a rosy throne speech.
March
Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre writes to Eby, urging him to abandon support of the carbon tax during an affordability crisis. Eby scoffs, saying Poilievre lives in a “baloney factory.” He promises to be the last premier standing to support the carbon tax. Six months later, Eby flip-flops to Poilievre’s position and opposes the tax.
The Conservatives fire a candidate, Dr. Stephen Malthouse, who says the COVID-19 vaccine gives people magnetic powers.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke demands more financial help from the NDP to solve the long-standing Surrey police standoff — and while Eby says no more money is available, and months of drama is yet to play out, he later caves during the year and cuts a deal.
April
The B.C. government suffers a credit downgrade and a shift to a negative outlook from two credit rating agencies, amidst plans to add $50 billion in direct debt over three years.
Nurses in hospitals speak out about widespread drug use in shared hospital rooms and hallways, saying their safety is at risk. Police chiefs demand change on decriminalization.
Eby announces he’s rolling back his government’s decriminalization experiment just one year into the three-year trial, recriminalizing drugs in public spaces, in response to extraordinary public backlash and worsening street disorder. He gets Ottawa to implement it, as his legislation remains stalled in the courts and is eventually abandoned.
May
As the BC Conservatives begin regularly trouncing BC United in the polls, a new waveof merger talks begins — then immediately collapses. United Leader Kevin Falcon proposes a desperate agreement with a non-compete clause and lottery for ridings. Conservative Leader Rustad calls it “completely unacceptable.”
Within days, Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson defects from United to the Conservatives.
Long-time United MLA and former cabinet minister Mike de Jong announces his retirement to run in federal politics.
The Conservatives fire a candidate, Damon Scrase, who called LGBTQ people in pride parades “degenerates” and “perverts.”
June
Surrey MLA Elenore Sturko becomes the latest United MLA to defect to the Conservatives. She immediately faces questions about why an LGBTQ champion would join a party criticized as having homophobic members and positions.
Green MLA Adam Olsen announces his retirement from politics.
July
Veteran cabinet ministers Bruce Ralston, Harry Bains and Rob Fleming announce their retirements — the first of seven cabinet ministers from John Horgan’s government to leave Eby’s team.
BC United fundraising numbers show it’s lagging far behind the record amount Conservatives are raising in the critical run-up to the election. United flirts with adding the BC Liberal name back to the ballot.
August
Falcon pulls the pin on BC United, suspending its election campaign and unilaterally firing its candidates just seven weeks before the election. The move effectively ends the dynasty of what had once been the BC Liberal Party.
The secret deal has massive consequences, including leading some veteran MLAs like Shirley Bond to retire, other incumbents to run without a party, and some candidates to run as independents.
The Conservatives make only minor changes in the merger, choosing to leave several of their controversial candidates in place rather than take United options. They do, however, remove Prince George candidate Rachael Weber who said 5G wireless networks are “genocidal weapons” that spread the coronavirus.
September
A pre-election budget update shows B.C.’s deficit has grown to $9 billion. Eby insists all is well, because the province still has the fast-growing economy in Canada.
Polls show the surging Conservatives and stalled NDP in a dead heat. Rustad and Ebyprepare to face off. The premier executes a last-minute reversal on involuntary care, sensing public dissatisfaction with his lack of progress on street disorder.
The writ drops and the provincial election officially begins Sept. 21.
The NDP war room begins unleashing daily attacks on Rustad and the Conservatives for controversial opinions and conspiracy theories. It largely fails to move voter opinion.
October
One of the nastiest, ugliest, most divisive provincial elections in B.C. history concludes (mercifully) on Oct. 19.
Voters upset about health care, drugs, public safety, social issues and affordability reduce the NDP’s majority to what appears to be, initially, a minority government, with heavy losses in Surrey, the Fraser Valley, the Interior and northern Vancouver Island. The BC Conservatives surge from no elected seats to a near-tie with the NDP, but barely come up short.
“Our wings were clipped,” says Eby.
The BC Greens lose half their vote share and Leader Sonia Furstenau fails to win a seat. Nonetheless, the party elects two new MLAs. Furstenau opens co-operation talks with the NDP but refuses to talk to the Conservatives.
Several seats undergo recounts, then judicial recounts. Elections BC mystifyingly finds a bunch of miscounted ballots, then an entire missing ballot box in Prince George. The fate of the NDP government hangs in the balance as days, then weeks, tick by.
November
Twenty days after election day, on Nov. 8, the BC NDP officially wins a recount in Surrey-Guildford by 22 votes, giving it a one-seat majority government of 47 seats. Eby calls it a “near-death” experience. The Conservatives form Official Opposition with 44 seats.
Eby names a new cabinet, scrapping the standalone addictions ministry, re-issuing similar priorities, and giving every MLA on his team a job title that includes a public pay top-up.
Former NDP premier John Horgan dies following a third battle with cancer at the age of 65.
December
The BC Conservatives descend into public infighting after a letter by 13 MLAs demands Sturko apologize for some public comments. Rustad backs the dissidents. Speculation rises the Conservative caucus is on the verge of implosion.
The government forgoes recalling the legislature. Instead, the NDP and Greens sign a co-operation deal that hands the NDP a safety net on confidence votes.
The NDP releases a post-election budget update, admitting the deficit has grown even larger, to $9.4 billion. What was the fastest-growing economy in Canada is now the slowest. Conservatives say voters weren’t told the truth by the NDP in the election.
Eby announces a hiring freeze for the civil service — then gives his own political staff pay increases.
Eby meets with other premiers to devise a strategy to fight U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs. The federal Liberal government begins to unravel following the resignation of the finance minister and calls for the prime minister to resign.
Eby says the premiers represent stable leadership, amidst chaos elsewhere. Stability is relative, though. 2024 was anything but stable in B.C. politics. 2025 could be just as volatile.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 16 years covering B.C. politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Glacier Media. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on CBC Radio.
