OP-ED: The only person surrendering our province is David Eby
Benjamin Lawton writes, "Unlike the Premier, BC’s new Iron Lady is not for turning."
By: Benjamin Lawton
Benjamin Lawton is a Vancouver-based public affairs consultant specializing in industry defence. He is the executive director of the Bedrock Network, a mining industry advocacy organization.
Premier David Eby took a swing at the new BC Conservative leader yesterday and missed by a mile.
In classic NDP fashion, the Premier sneered that Kerry-Lynne Findlay was applying to be “the MAGA regional manager” and not “the premier of British Columbia.”
It was a line, no doubt crafted by the nauseatingly Donald Trump-obsessed messaging team Eby has at his disposal, that opened the premier up to attack.
In truth, the only person actually surrendering this province is David Eby himself: the real regional manager in Victoria, busy handing over legislative control, Crown land and provincial sovereignty to anyone who issues a threat.
While Eby was busy fear-mongering about American boogeymen, Findlay was on CBC calmly explaining why she and every other Conservative leadership candidate want to repeal DRIPA. CBC was quite the choice for the first media appearance, given that predictably, the host was on the attack. But Findlay handled herself remarkably well in such a hostile environment.
Findlay, who laid out her record as a trial lawyer on major Indigenous title cases at the Supreme Court level, had a plain and simple message: she prefers negotiation, but she will not be bullied by threats of protests or court battles.
BC’s new Iron Lady is not for turning.
“I don’t react well to threats,” she said.
Of course, neither does Eby. But Eby’s reaction to threats from the First Nations Leadership Council over his limp-wristed attempt to turn the page on DRIPA was altogether of a different kind. It was a reaction that exposed a frightening level of weakness in our premier.
When Eby first pushed DRIPA through, he sold it as some grand reconciliation gesture. Then the reality of massive legal uncertainty and two-tiered systems of competing land rights quickly took the stage.
When it appeared that David Eby had somehow mustered some backbone and declared changes to the law “non-negotiable”, it wasn’t long until First Nations leadership pushed back.
Then he folded faster than a cheap lawn chair. The NDP quietly abandoned any meaningful reform, leaving DRIPA entirely untouched.
The message to every activist and interest group was crystal clear: threaten the Premier and he’ll do whatever you want.
And it’s not the only example. Eby’s NDP has been quietly dismantling Crown land management and replacing it with opaque “Indigenous co-governance” schemes that shut regular British Columbians out of the conversation.
Then there’s the consent agreements with select nations that fragment provincial sovereignty, creating a confusing patchwork of territorial control. Meanwhile, Eby and his ministers parrot the “stolen land” rhetoric that delegitimizes the very government they were elected to run.
Findlay, on the other hand, is under no illusion surrounding the duty and obligations of a BC Premier. She understands that British Columbia’s future depends on strong property rights, economic development, and a single set of rules that applies to every citizen, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike.
Eby, by contrast, has spent years proving he’s willing to trade away legislative control, public land ownership, and the province’s own legal authority just to avoid a fight. He’s turned caving into threats into policy.
He’s turned UNDRIP — a United Nations declaration never meant to become domestic law anywhere else in Canada — into the supreme governing document of British Columbia.
My advice to Eby would be to listen less to his gaggle of communications consultants and to listen more to everyday British Columbians.
The real surrender happening in British Columbia isn’t coming from the Conservative leader. In reality, it’s coming from the guy who gave up managing the province in the first place.