Eby’s baby countdown brings B.C. election campaigning forward

B.C.’s election is still four months away, but Premier David Eby has held a campaign event in Vancouver ahead of what he says is a personal count down — next week’s expected birth of his third child.

Eby says he and his wife, Cailey, are expecting a daughter on June 27, so he wanted to make an early start to campaigning for the Oct. 19 election before taking a break to spend some time with his family.

He introduced four New Democrat candidates, including former broadcaster Randene Neill and Baltej Dillon, the first RCMP officer to wear a turban on duty.

Eby’s early campaign start comes amid open battling between B.C.’s two right-of-centre parties, Opposition Leader Kevin Falcon’s BC United and John Rustad’s upstart B.C. Conservatives.

Professor David Black, a political communications expert at Greater Victoria’s Royal Roads University, says B.C.’s fixed election date law puts parties in constant campaign mode, but the battle on the right has heightened awareness of the coming election.

Black says people usually tune out politics during the summer months, but the feuding between BC United and the Conservatives is keeping the public’s attention on the distant election.

Eby says his government is making progress on health, housing and the economy and he wants that to continue.