B.C. NDP turns its guns on the Conservatives

B.C. Conservative MLA Bruce Banman touched off a telling exchange in the legislature Thursday when he used his party’s slot in question period to launch a broad-brush attack on the NDP government.

The botched safer supply and decriminalization initiatives. Kickbacks in dispensing government grants. The failure to reach a deal on Surrey policing. The crackdown on protests outside K-12 schools …

Banman lashed out at the government over pretty much every one of recent controversies.

He also accused NDP Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth of engaging in “bluster,” which took a lot of gall. On a 10-point scale of bluster, Banman is an 11.

The wayward B.C. Conservative MLA also disregarded several calls to get to the point from Speaker Raj Chouhan, who eventually put him on notice.

“Next time,” warned the exasperated Speaker, “if the member is not paying attention, you will be kicked out. Simple as that.”

Blustering Banman had aimed his questions-come-accusations at Farnworth.

But Premier David Eby waived off the public safety minister and answered himself, cherry picking from among the Conservative MLA’s scattershot list of topics.

Eby was on firm ground when he faced off against Banman over the accusation that the New Democrats had brought in “a ban on peaceful demonstrations near schools.”

The Safe Access to Schools Act would allow the cabinet to establish a 20-metre “bubble zone” around school properties, curbing protests that seek to block access and intimidate students and teachers.

That put Banman and his party in the position of supporting “people going to local schools, threatening children, threatening teachers, making them feel unsafe,” according to the premier.

“A law establishing a 20-metre perimeter around schools just to keep teachers and kids safe, and his party opposes it.

“There was a protest where people were banging on the windows of a school,” continued Eby, citing one protest from a list of “17 major incidents” compiled by the Education Ministry over the past year.

Interesting, isn’t it? When the premier wants to make a political point, he has the data right at his fingertips. But just try to get the stats from him on diversion of safer supply drugs to the illicit market.

Those protests at the schools mostly targeted the use of the SOGI teaching resource – short for sexual orientation and gender identity. Conservative leader John Rustad has argued it should be scrapped, though he was part of the B.C. Liberal government that brought in SOGI.

The bubble zone approach echoes the measure the New Democrats adopted to prevent anti-vaccine protests outside hospitals during the pandemic. In such cases, the government curbed protests that were crafted to intimidate patients and health care workers.

For all Eby’s determination to defend SOGI and ensure access to the schools, it is rare for a premier to take on the No. 2 person in a two-member caucus, as he did Thursday.

When I asked Eby about his intervention against the Conservative MLA Thursday, the reply was matter of fact: “They are polling second.”

With poll after poll putting the B.C. Conservatives ahead of the B.C. United Opposition, Eby is starting to treat the upstart party as if it will be his prime opponent in the election.

Setting aside the polls, the SOGI issue is not one that is likely to broaden the Conservative appeal beyond … well, beyond the kind of voters who also got exercised about bubble zones around abortion clinics and hospitals.

The New Democrats are no doubt hoping the debate on the Safe Access to Schools Act will deepen the divisions between the two parties on the centre right.

B.C. United Leader Kevin Falcon told reporters that he supports the goal of restricting protests that intimidate students and teachers.

But he also questioned the cumbersome aspect of the NDP legislation, which requires the cabinet to establish a protected zone around a particular school or group of schools, before enforcement could take place.

Would B.C. United vote for or against the legislation? Falcon says he first wants to study it, no doubt raising NDP hopes that they’ve trapped him again.