The Ben Mulroney Show - Is the BC Left Being Fundamentally Undemocratic?

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

In this segment from on "The Ben Mulroney Show," Ben welcomes MP Dan Albas, from the riding of Okanagan Lake West. MP Albas is not at all happy about BC Premier David Eby calling a snap provincial election If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠   Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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David Eby, the Premier of British Columbia, decided in his sage and infinite wisdom that it was more important to go back to the polls to see if you can get more seats in the legislature. A week after municipal elections in that province, that's a super idea. then it was to actually do the work of governing and he had a mandate for the next two years. That happened. That broke on the show yesterday. And so we were learning about it on the fly, which meant after the show and earlier today,

it was all about getting reaction from people. And I saw a reaction of one MP in particular, I believe going into a caucus meeting. And that was Dan Albus, the MP for the writing of Okanagan Lake West. He turned on his heels, went back and found that microphone and told the journalist exactly, what he was thinking, and I'm glad that he's joining us now so he can give us a piece of his mind, too. Dan, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me, Ben. So you were not happy. You were not happy about this. Tell me what your issue is with this election being called. Because according to David Eby, this is, it's the existential threat of Donald Trump. He's running against Trump. Well, absolutely. And, of course, you're going to be running against Donald Trump when you don't have a record for

yourself to run on. Throughout British Columbia, we have hospitals, emergency rooms in rural areas that are closed unexpectedly, and people are told that you have to drive to a large community to receive medical help if you need it. That's not good for people. That's not good for the economy. You know, look in my area of Colonna, we have the highest unemployment in the country at 9%. And we've just had these massive fires through British Columbia, areas like Clinton, areas like Fowler and Sinclair. Summerland in my area. Look, right now there's an election happening both provincially as well as municipally. Most of the issues that people are

dealing with Ben, where if we're talking about insurance, we're talking about emergency supports, we're talking about local permits to try to begin to rebuild. All of that is local and provincial government authorization. So right now someone can't go to their MLA to ask for help and look, even his own ministers are effect bailing out on him. Two of his top ministers just in the last 24 hours. So look, being premier is a tough job. So I understand that. But at the end of the day, when you have a mandate a four-year term, they were elected in October 24, if your job is to

create stability and to do things that are good for your citizens. And if you suddenly feel that because of Donald Trump, that you need to do something radical or different, then you go, you recall your legislative assembly, get all the MLAs in BC to show up, and you say, this is my plan, and let's put it to a test of confidence. And you know what? I'll work with you. Let's sit in a room and let's hammer out something that we can all agree on so that we can keep this government running and we can keep the plans and we can grow this province together.

But he didn't do that. I also want to throw something at you because I think a very good case could be made that this is fundamentally anti-democratic. And the irony that the left is constantly screaming about the death of democracy under Donald Trump. And this is what happened. Firstly, the fact that he had to break a provincial law for fixed elections to do this. All right.

So right there, the law that was brought in specifically to let people know when these elections were going to happen, he denied it. just like his predecessor, John Hogan did. And I find it interesting that the date of this election is the same date as the John Hogan election six years earlier. But the fact that he had two more years on it and he, the party that could have shown him the biggest competition, the conservatives, had two more years to get their house in order after a very tumultuous time.

And Carrie Lynn Finley resigning. And then he pulled the same. switch on the election two days later, he decided that he wanted to take them out more than anything else. And thereby denying the expression of democracy of last election and essentially is denying these people the chance to have a real election against real competition with a different vision for the province. You're absolutely correct on the Democratic side. He's violating the fixed election. election date. Again, this was his personal choice. He could have, he could have just tested the

confidence of the House. I don't think the conservatives would have had the numbers. I think that he would have passed that. And he would then have received a mandate. But let's also look at what he's doing to the municipal elections by basically big footing his way into there. You're going to have it where local people who are out there, maybe for the first time, putting their, wanting to talk about local issues, all that gets swept to the side. Well, not only that, they're talking about the other than politics. Dan, something like this happened.

A similar situation happened in Saskatchewan a few years ago, where municipal elections got overshadowed by a provincial election. What you saw was a dramatic drop in voter participation on the municipal level. Absolutely. And in this creates cynicism, it also has impacts. It favors incumbents. But look, even the nonpartisan union of BC municipalities has been. They had their big conference last week.

It is a big deal for municipalities maybe it was a week and a half ago. And they specifically, when they heard about rumors, they actually said they passed a resolution, do not do this. And so school trustees, local councils, regional district, all of those things, we will see a lower participation rate. And again, there's only so many volunteers. So David E.B., I think, should have been the bigger man. Look, as I said, being a premier, being a prime minister is tough. Dealing with foreign threats like the Donald Top is tough. But putting yourself first, you and your party first, rather than creating the stability that people need,

like the voters of BC deserve better. And I saw on an interview with an academic Philippe de Glass, he said it was a dishonorable thing. And I agree with him. I've had an academic send me a little note saying it was astounding gall. I agree with you. And I think he's hoping that this gambit, which mirrors completely John Horgan's six years ago, he's hoping for that result. But I don't know if he's going to get it. He may end up having a similar situation with Justin Trudeau got when he forced us all to the polls during a pandemic, thinking he could get a majority.

And he did not because he pissed off the voters. And I think one of the unintended consequences of this is people are now paying attention to. the interim leader of the conservative party, Lauren Dirkson, there's no way they would have been known his name today if this election wasn't coming. And now people are paying attention. And his first press conference that he gave, I think, earlier today was a good one.

He showed that he's a, I've learned that he was a former rodeo guy, which meant he spent a lot of time in hospitals. And back then he said he's never seen, he never walked into a hospital that was closed. And now he goes in British Columbia, they're closing hospitals. that's a good that's a good introduction

absolutely and he's not wrong when he started talking about the policies that have people homeless that have people cutting back on on their meals parents aren't able to put their kids in as many activities the affordability is there then we have people that have mental issues

that have drug issues look both Premier Eby and the previous leader of the conservatives in the last election agreed on dealing with involuntary care. That has been thrown by the wayside. So when you look at the issue set here, Ben, there is nothing that David Eby is doing well, except that he likes to waive the saber at President Trump.

And like I said, I understand when politicians do that. But his responsibilities to the people of D.C. And on the things that you and I would probably agree on, like, let's have schools that focus on children and teaching. Let's have hospitals that look after people in a timely basis. You know, let's try and house the homeless. I'm sure we have all sorts of debates, but again, from a Democratic perspective, it's terrible. Thank you, Dan Albus.

And my heart goes out to anybody in your riding who is still dealing with the aftermath of the fires. I wish them well. I appreciate that, Ben. Take care.