Gunn says BC vote must be ‘a referendum’ on Eby’s record

Conservative MP Aaron Gunn says BC’s Oct. 24 election should be “a referendum on the last four years of David Eby,” and that the premier wants the campaign to be about anything but his record.

Speaking with Jim Csek on The Really Big Show, Gunn said Eby called the early election “out of nowhere” and has tried to frame it around U.S. President Donald Trump.

“I think that British Columbia can’t afford four more years of the NDP,” said Gunn, the MP for North Island-Powell River and the federal Conservatives’ critic for ethics and accountable government.

He said the premier “saw this as an opportunity for himself to consolidate his own political power,” but that voters now have a chance “to throw out the NDP and their ideological policies two years ahead of schedule.”

Eby called the snap election in September, citing what he called the “existential” threat posed by Trump, after upheaval in the BC Conservatives that included the resignation of leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay.

Gunn, who was in Kelowna campaigning for BC Conservative candidates, said the race is still close.

“I think the polls are still tight,” he said. “I think a lot of it’s going to come down to who gets their vote out.”

He pointed to the province’s deficit, forestry job losses and overdose deaths, and criticized the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, known as DRIPA, saying it has left people unsure who owns “the land under their feet.”

Gunn also took aim at Ottawa. He said the Liberal government changed Parliament’s standing orders to add Liberal MPs to committees and avoid oversight, and alleged it used “backroom deals” to get opposition MPs to cross the floor, calling the result “an illegitimate majority government.”

The federal Liberals have not responded to the remarks.

He criticized the second phase of LNG Canada for relying on imported steel, saying reports suggest most of it is coming from China.

“These are state subsidized dumping,” he said of Chinese steel producers. “There’s no way a Canadian company can compete.”

Gunn has also asked the federal lobbying commissioner to look into the Canada-BC condo conversion program announced in June, which is expected to cost about $1.5 billion.

On crime, he recalled a business owner he met while filming a documentary in London, Ont., who told him, “You get what you tolerate as a society.”

“These are not problems that are difficult to solve,” Gunn said.

Asked about supporters who wanted him to run for the BC Conservative leadership, Gunn said the timing was wrong.

“I don’t think it was the right time for me,” he said. “There’s a lot of work to be done in Ottawa.”