Welcome back to This Week in Canada, where common sense makes a comeback in British Columbia; Pierre Poilievre misses out on the conservative resurgence; Maine comes to our rescue in the Canada-U.S. trade war; and more. Let’s jump right in!
British Columbia was the first Canadian province to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine, and other illegal drugs. It was also the first province to require that its laws align with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And it was the first government in the world to require that all new vehicles emit no greenhouse gases.
Yet voters in British Columbia swept the provincial Conservative Party to a landslide victory on Saturday, ending nine years of rule by the left-of-center New Democratic Party and ushering in the first Conservative government in almost 100 years. The Conservatives won 48 percent of the vote and 64 of 93 seats.
Barely a month ago the party was tearing itself apart, and premier David Eby called a snap election two years early, apparently calculating that leadership turmoil, expulsions, and defections among the Conservatives were too tempting to pass up. Eby’s decision might go down as one of the worst in Canadian political history. He barely won reelection in his own district.
What made the outcome even more stunning was the man in charge of the Conservative Party: Lorne Doerkson. He used to be a bareback rodeo rider, newspaper publisher, and Liberal Party member. “You pick up yourself, dust yourself off, and you get back on,” Doerkson said in his victory speech on Saturday night.
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