Premier David Eby’s leadership is up for a review vote this weekend as the NDP party faithful gather in Victoria for their biannual convention.
Nearly 400 resolutions will also be presented to guide the future path of the provincial party.
These are broken into categories that could be loosely described as jobs, government spending, diversity and party affairs.
Examples of resolutions include one calling for an expansion of ICBC into other types of insurance, and another calling on the government to negotiate public equity stakes in major energy projects.
The convention begins today (Friday, Nov. 14) and runs through Sunday. Eby and federal interim NDP Leader Don Davies will give speeches on Saturday.
On Sunday, speeches will be given by Sussanne Skidmore, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour and Latoia Jones, vice-president of Hustle, a U.S.-based digital communications company used by political organizations.
The leadership vote is scheduled for immediately after Eby’s Saturday afternoon speech. He needs more than 50 per cent support from the roughly 800 delegates in the silent ballot vote to avoid a leadership race being triggered.
Eby sailed through his last leadership review vote in 2022 with nearly 93 per cent support. The NDP hold a convention every two years, unless there is an election.
It will be interesting to see if Eby has maintained this level of support after a protracted strike by public service unions and dissatisfaction with project fast-tracking legislation among some First Nations and environmental groups.
“There is an accumulation of frustrations,” said Stewart Prest, a political science lecturer at the University of British Columbia. “But at the same time, I don’t know if it’s going to add up to an actual rebellion within the party.”
While Prest does think Eby will pass the 50 per cent threshold, he warns that if his support slips too far, it could lead to future rumblings about his leadership. B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad got slightly more than 70 per cent in his recent leadership review, and calls for him to step down remain fairly constant.
“If he gets less support than Mr. Rustad did, I do think those rumblings will get quite loud quite quickly, but if he’s up over 75, 80 per cent, I don’t think we’ll be talking too much more about this for the present,” Prest said.
There will also be a vote on the party’s executive board on Sunday, with Eby’s preferred slate of candidates headed by former MLA Aman Singh. At this stage, that is the only organized slate of candidates, with a scattering of other individuals running. There could also be nominations from the floor during the convention.