David Eby called a snap election two years early and told British Columbians the enemy was Donald Trump. He did not lead with housing, health care, or the mills closing in the Interior. He led with Trump.

Voters are not buying it.

An Angus Reid poll released in the first days of the campaign put cost of living first, health care second, and the economy third. Trump, tariffs, and the liquor ban landed seventh, at 15 percent. Sixty-two percent said the vote came too soon. That is not an existential crisis. That is a campaign slogan looking for a problem.

I sat down with Mo Amir, host of This is VANCOLOUR on CHEK, to talk through the week that blew up the province.

“I think it is safe to say that British Columbians did not buy the reasoning for this election,” Amir said. He argued that Eby planned the race against Kerry-Lynne Findlay, who would have been easier to paint as MAGA-lite. By the time the writ dropped, Findlay was gone and Lorne Doerkson was the Conservative leader. “The overreliance on this Trump argument is not landing, because people can see through it,” Amir said. “It doesn’t look like he believes it, and he looks weak.”

Findlay’s culture-war aesthetics had already turned a ten-point Conservative lead into a gift for the NDP. Doerkson arrived with almost no name recognition, kept his head down, brought the caucus home, and came off as boring and serious at the same time. Amir said that may now be the bigger problem for Eby. “Canadians are looking for someone maybe a little boring, but who comes off as serious and thoughtful,” he said. “They just don’t want to be gaslit.” To the general public, he added, Doerkson “is just a blank slate.”

Eby’s first two days were spent talking about liquor on the shelves. “This is a big existential crisis, and the only response you have is liquor on the shelves,” Amir said. Attorney General Niki Sharma used a Zoom briefing to seed doubt about whether Doerkson would even be premier if the Conservatives win. Amir’s warning was strategic. To make that argument, he said, you almost have to admit Doerkson looks like the leader people want. “You think you’re getting this great guy, but they’re going to switch him out later.”

The rest of the conversation stayed on the files the Trump speech is supposed to cover for. Forestry mills are going dark. Mine permits can take fifteen years in British Columbia and two years in Sweden. DRIPA still has no clean plan for the morning after repeal. A building in Vancouver can take a decade during a housing crisis. The Conservative Party, for once, has stopped handing the NDP free ammunition.

The ballot is October 24. The argument is the kitchen table, not MAGA theatre.

Mo Amir hosts This is VANCOLOUR, Thursday nights at 9pm on CHEK-TV.

Website: https://www.thisisvancolour.com/

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British Columbia is on fire again. Summerland emptied. Thousands displaced. At least one dead. And once more the official story leans on climate while soft-pedaling the decisions that left the landscape ready to burn.

I sat down with John Rustad this week — MLA for Nechako Lakes, former Forests Minister, former Minister of Aboriginal Relations. He has mapped historical fire regimes in the Interior and watched the policy failures pile up for decades.

His assessment was blunt: more than half of the current wildfire problem comes from management decisions, not just the weather.

In the 1990s the pine beetle was still manageable. The ministry wanted a large prescribed burn in Tweedsmuir under ideal conditions. Politicians delayed it. The burn failed. Harvesting never fully shifted to the dying pine. Fuel loads kept building. At the same time, aggressive fire suppression since the 1950s allowed forests to grow far older and denser than nature intended. Pine and Douglas-fir evolved with fire. We interrupted that cycle for decades, then acted surprised when the accumulated fuel finally lit. Current old-growth rules have made proper fuel management even harder.

Even after a fire starts, the system slows itself down. Experienced private crews and equipment often sit idle for days waiting for ministry plans. One example: 122 firefighters held on the roadside for hours over a porta-potty. The best time to fight many of these fires is early morning. The system still often puts crews out later. “It’s all about the process,” Rustad said. “As long as the process is being followed, nobody is held accountable.” Follow the rules and you are protected. Take initiative and something goes wrong, and you become the problem.

The same pattern shows up in the treaty file. Roughly 135,000 hectares of Crown land have been committed for transfer. No detailed public maps. The government treats these as pure government-to-government deals. The public is only informed after the fact. If backlash is loud they pause, wait, then continue. When Rustad was minister he signed Section 35 agreements that protected the public interest. He says DRIPA was never required for those deals — it has mostly raised expectations and made resolution harder.

Industry is responding the same way. Interfor is shifting corporate functions to Georgia. Nutrien is building export capacity in Washington instead of Prince Rupert. British Columbia has become a high-cost, high-uncertainty jurisdiction. Companies go where they are wanted. Putting critical minerals on the table as leverage against U.S. tariffs only adds more risk and uncertainty at the exact moment the province claims it wants investment.

On energy, Rustad keeps coming back to diesel. BC refines only about 35 percent of what it uses. A real share still comes from the United States. Diesel moves food, timber, and goods. He argues for more refining capacity outside the Lower Mainland and a northern pipeline route that stays clear of major salmon systems — practical steps toward less vulnerability and more value kept in the province.

The thread running through all of it is the same. Process has replaced results. Ideology has replaced judgment. Whether it is a fire running up a valley, a land deal done in the dark, or a company deciding BC is no longer worth the risk, the pattern holds.

The public is not imagining the frustration. They are living the consequences.

Yuri Fulmer, entrepreneur and BC Conservative leadership candidate, joins The Opposition with Dan Knight for a long-form, unscripted conversation about the direction of the party and the province.

In this interview, Fulmer leans into his role as “the disrupter,” arguing that British Columbia’s systems are fundamentally broken and require more than incremental change. He outlines his business-first approach to politics, emphasizing execution, accountability, and a willingness to challenge both government and internal party dynamics.

The conversation centres on his controversial “Unite the Right” agreement with Dallas Brodie and One BC — a deal that would see One BC stand down in 88 ridings, while a Fulmer-led Conservative Party would step aside in five, backed by a confidence-and-supply agreement. Fulmer argues the move is rooted in math, not ideology, warning that vote-splitting on the right will cost Conservatives the next election if left unaddressed.

We also cover internal party divisions, candidate accountability, shifting political positions, and why Fulmer believes a leadership race should be about contrast — not consensus. He challenges rivals on their records, questions where they stood when the party was struggling, and argues that members deserve clear distinctions before they vote.

Beyond strategy, the interview explores affordability, housing costs driven by government fees and delays, immigration pressures, and the broader economic frustration facing British Columbians.

This is part of The BC Conservative Leadership Interview Series — long-form conversations with the candidates asking to lead the party and the province.

No filters. No talking points. Just the candidate, the record, and the question that matters: who can actually win and govern?

Watch, listen, and decide for yourself.

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There’s a lot of noise in this leadership race. A lot of slogans. A lot of candidates trying to sound the same.

This isn’t that.

I sat down with Iain Black for a full, long-form conversation — no scripts, no handlers, no five-minute clips. Just real answers from someone who’s actually been inside government and outside of it.

We get into his record as a cabinet minister, what he thinks went wrong with the old coalition, and why he believes experience — not theory — is what this province needs right now. We talk affordability, housing, permitting delays that stretch into years, crime, immigration, DRIPA, and the growing sense that the system just isn’t working for people anymore.

He doesn’t dodge the hard questions. On SOGI, on shifting positions in this race, on party division — it’s all on the table.

And whether you agree with him or not, you’ll understand exactly what he stands for by the end of it.

That’s the point of this series.

We’re holding the people who want to run this province to account — and letting you decide who’s actually ready.

Watch it. Share it. Make up your own mind.

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Warren Hamm, Rossland contractor, helicopter maintenance engineer, and BC Conservative leadership candidate, joins The Opposition with Dan Knight for a long-form conversation about the future of British Columbia.

Hamm lays out his “Builders, Not Bureaucrats” message and explains why he believes the province is being strangled by red tape, regulatory overreach, and a political class disconnected from working people. With more than 30 years in aviation, construction, and the resource sector, he argues that BC needs practical leadership rooted in real-world experience — not career politicians.

In this interview, Hamm discusses cutting regulatory barriers to housing and development, reviving forestry and mining, restoring affordability, strengthening regional economies, and confronting what he calls government waste and dysfunction. He also addresses his high-profile permitting dispute with the City of Rossland, the BC Supreme Court ruling that followed, and why he chose to sue individual councillors over what he says was bad-faith decision-making.

The conversation also covers SOGI, parental rights, party unity, and how he plans to defeat David Eby in the next provincial election.

This is part of The BC Conservative Leadership Interview Series — long-form, unscripted conversations with the candidates asking to lead the party.

Listen, watch, and decide for yourself.

Follow for more #bcpoli coverage and leadership interviews.

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Kerry-Lynne Findlay joins The Opposition with Dan Knight for a direct, no-spin conversation on the B.C. Conservative leadership race. The former cabinet minister lays out her case for experience and consistency, takes aim at shifting positions on DRIPA and SOGI, and argues voters are done with politicians rewriting their records. From affordability and fuel taxes to public safety and party unity, Findlay makes it clear: this race is about trust—and who can actually govern.

Peter Milobar, Kamloops Centre MLA, former mayor, and BC Conservative leadership candidate, joins The Opposition with Dan Knight.

In this candid interview, Milobar discusses his long record in public service, the NDP’s record deficits and tax hikes, fixing health care and affordability, cutting regulatory red tape, repealing DRIPA and SOGI, restoring parental rights in schools, tackling crime and safe supply failures, and his vision for a unified, electable Conservative Party that can actually win government.

He also addresses the 215 residential school announcement and the need for more transparency and timelines.

A no-fluff conversation with a seasoned politician who’s been in the arena for over 20 years.

Listen now and decide for yourself.

I spoke with Bruce Banman on The Opposition because his story matters in this moment as a case study in how British Columbia’s political landscape actually shifted.

Twitter: @brucebanman

Facebook: @bruce_banman

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Banman wasn’t supposed to matter when he crossed the floor from BC United to the BC Conservatives. At the time, that move made no strategic sense. There was no polling advantage, no guarantee of re-election, no certainty the party he joined would even survive, let alone contend for power. The safe option was silence. The rewarded option was compliance. He chose neither.

When Banman crossed, the BC Conservatives had almost nothing in the legislature, no institutional power, no media shield, no serious standing. What they did not have was a voice. He gave them one. And he didn’t do it quietly. He used Question Period the way it’s supposed to be used: to challenge, to disrupt, and to force uncomfortable debates into the open and debates others preferred to avoid entirely.

What followed wasn’t incremental change. It was collapse. BC United disintegrated. The Conservative Party surged. And in a remarkably short period of time, the party that Banman helped legitimize became the Official Opposition, falling just shy of fewer than 700 votes and forming government. That didn’t happen because of rebranding or messaging tweaks. It happened because someone acted before it was safe to do so.

That context matters now because Banman’s leadership bid isn’t about ambition arriving early. It’s about momentum catching up late.

In our conversation, Banman wasn’t performing inevitability. He talked openly about doubt, about risk, about personal and professional consequences — about moments where the “smart” decision and the “right” decision were not the same thing. He described politics the way it actually is: messy, costly, and often punishing to people who refuse to follow scripts.

What stood out wasn’t polish. It was pattern. Banman’s career shows a repeated willingness to take positions when the outcome is uncertain, as mayor, as an MLA, and now as a leadership candidate. That doesn’t make him correct by default. It does make him different from a political class that tends to wait until permission is granted.

The phrase he keeps returning to, “act, not hide” which isn’t a slogan so much as a summary of how he’s operated. In British Columbia, where too many politicians have mastered the art of delay, deflection, and managed ambiguity, that distinction is worth examining, even critically.

This episode of The Opposition isn’t about endorsement. It’s about understanding how power actually shifted in this province, who took the risk, who stayed silent, and why the political ground moved the way it did. Whether Banman becomes leader or not, the record already shows that he helped force a reckoning others avoided.

That’s why the conversation matters now, not because the race is over, but because it isn’t.

You can watch or listen to the full episode below