Former B.C. finance and jobs minister Brenda Bailey said David Eby came across as “inauthentic” during the BC NDP election campaign.
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Brenda Bailey, who served as B.C. finance and jobs minister under Premier David Eby, said she believed Eby came across as “inauthentic” during the BC NDP’s election campaign.
Bailey contrasted Eby with premier-designate Lorne Doerkson, saying she found Doerkson to be a “deeply authentic man” and “very likable.”
In discussing the party’s defeat, Bailey called it a “harsh judgment” on Eby’s leadership and his decision to call a snap vote.
Bailey said Eby’s early justification for the election as a response to the threat posed by U.S. President Donald Trump did not resonate with even him, and she described his announcement of the Oct. 24 vote and its reasons as perhaps the worst press conference she said he had ever delivered.
Bailey also said Eby stepped down as NDP leader on election night and that, while he has “many redeeming qualities,” she felt the “lumber-jacket-at-the-border-version” of him did not work.
She added that she viewed the Conservatives’ decision to make Doerkson their interim leader after Kerry-Lynne Findlay resigned two days before the election call as a “brilliant strategic” move.
Bailey said she has successfully undergone cancer treatment and is taking a break from politics to enter the private sector, and she said “time will tell” whether she remains in the NDP.
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