BY RATTAN MALL

PREMIER David Eby doesn’t appear to be too concerned about the surge in the popularity of the BC Conservative Party.

Referring to BC United Leader Kevin Falcon first kicking out John Rustad, who’s now the B.C. Conservative leader, and then wanting to patch up with him, Eby told The VOICE this week in an interview: “For me, it’s easy to keep in mind that they were both sitting around the cabinet table under the same party – it’s the same party – and it’s a fight that they are having, and I don’t know who I will end up running against in the election in the fall, but I know that for us, focusing on what’s important for British Columbians is critical and it’s not getting too wrapped up in the polls.”

The latest Research Co. poll shows the BC NDP in the lead with the support of 42 per cent of decided voters with the BC Conservatives in second place at 32 per cent support, and BC United and the BC Greens tied for third place at 12 per cent support each.

Eby added: “I am glad we’re number one in the polls. It’s very good news … but there’s only one poll that really matters and that’s the election and that’s what we are really focused on, assuring British Columbia how we are addressing the issues in our province and in some cases across North America and what we will do after we are elected if they give us the opportunity.”

Eby had dropped in at The VOICE’s office on Wednesday to meet the staff and talk on a raft of issues.

Here is the rest of the interview:

VOICE: Your approval rating in the latest poll is 54 per cent as compared to John Rustad’s 37 per cent and Kevin Falcon is just 31 per cent. That must be a morale booster for you.

EBY: I am glad that people are supportive of me, but at the end of the day, there’s an election in October and it will matter where they mark their ballots – and it’s for a party that I hope they will support that focusses on their concerns – on housing, on health care, on delivering high quality education for kids, and child care, because the other parties are proposing really significant cuts.

VOICE: Why do you think BC United lost their credibility so fast?

EBY: Well, I think it’s very hard for people to know what the Conservatives and BC United stand for. John Rustad and Kevin Falcon are the ones that brought us the carbon tax and now they both say they are opposed to the carbon tax. Kevin Falcon says he’s in favour of a woman’s right to choose and then he says that he wants to form an alliance with John Rustad who’s opposed to a woman’s right to choose and then they both say that they want to support people in the province, but then put forward proposals to cancel schools’ and hospitals’ projects. It’s just hard for people to know what they stand for and I think that once they figure that out, then we will be able to have a good debate around the election.

VOICE: According to the latest poll, the BC Conservatives are ahead of the NDP only in the 18 to 34 age group of decided voters. Is there some disconnect between the younger generation and the NDP?

EBY: For the young people – and this is a group that I am particularly concerned about – they are really looking and saying is there a future for me in British Columbia and Canada, and particularly it’s around housing. Am I going to be able to own a home? Am I going to be able to raise a family here? And that is why we’ve put a number of different pieces in place to respond to the needs of the young people. If they are in school, build additional residences in school. If they are not in school, additional job training and skills training for the occupations that we really need, and also to use things like public land to build attainable middle-income housing for people. So it will be our job to get to young people and seniors and others and outline what we’ve been doing and what we are going to do going forward to address their concerns. The young people in the 18- to 34-year-old group are the future of the province and making sure that we are looking after their needs means we are looking after the future of our province as well.

VOICE: What would you like to say to the South Asian community?

EBY: Well, I think you know it’s important for people in Surrey and south of the Fraser [and] up the Valley to understand that our government really recognizes the lack of investment that these communities have seen for so long. The fact that there was only one school expansion done in the last four years of the previous government, that bought land for the hospital was sold, that Highway 1 wasn’t expanded, the rapid transit was never built south of the Fraser. And so when we accelerated things like the Surrey Memorial Care Tower, the new hospital site, a new medical school at SFU Surrey, rapid transit from Surrey to Langley, Highway 1 expansion to help people get home at the end of the day .., these are significant investments and when they hear the other parties say they wanna reduce government spending, they want to reduce expenditure, that’s what they are talking about. And it will be the same thing again if the Kevin Falcon party or the John Rustad party gets into power, is the first place they will be looking to cut projects is south of the Fraser again because that’s what they did before. This is where they sold property. They didn’t sell property in Vancouver. This is where they didn’t open schools. They opened schools in Vancouver. So we can’t go back to that because Surrey is growing too fast and we can’t rely on our grandparents’ infrastructure when this was just a farming community. It’s a fast-growing community and it’s going to be a center for Canada and it’s gotta have the infrastructure to match.

VOICE: How are your relations with the federal government?

EBY: Challenging! We notionally have a better relationship than more conservative provinces with the federal government, but what we are seeing is major economic investment going into Ontario and Quebec instead of into British Columbia into electric car plants, which is fine for those provinces, but for British Columbia, we have a different economy here that means different investments to grow our economy in life sciences, in resource development, refining manufacturing – and so we are not seeing the same level of federal attention to British Columbia that we deserve – major infrastructure projects: Massey Tunnel, expansion of Highway 1 that need that federal government support – haven’t seen it – and that’s our message to the federal government consistently is that British Columbia just needs our fair share on the basis of our population that other province are seeing. And I do worry they are being consumed by political concerns rather than what’s fair for all people across the country.

VOICE: Are there any other major issues that you see for B.C.?

EBY: Well, I think you know it’s an interesting time in our province because on all the headline indicators GDP growth relating big provinces in Canada – unemployment – we have the lowest unemployment in Canada; debt-to-GDP [ratio] – one of the best records in Canada; all those headline measurements, we are doing very well economically. But for people in communities, they’re seeing their interest rates on their mortgages really hurt their bottom lines, interest rates on debt that they have really affecting the money that they have available whether it’s a small business or it’s a family and grocery prices going up. And these impacts of policies that take place well outside our borders are really affecting British Columbians. So even though previously we always measured economic success by the fact … of creating more jobs than other provinces, yes, we created 20,000 jobs last month, which is the most of any province in Canada, but it doesn’t matter if people aren’t supported and I think that’s what our party is bringing to the table – is making sure that people are supported as well. It was part of the discussion that was missing for many years in British Columbia under John Rustad and Kevin Falcon.