After some tough days on the campaign trail, Tuesday brought wind to David Eby’s sails: a photo-op with popular Prime Minister Mark Carney and the chance to celebrate landing a major investment in B.C.—Phase 2 of LNG Canada. “This is a very big deal, indeed,” said a beaming Eby at Tuesday’s announcement of the final investment decision for the project. The B.C. Conservatives also called it great news, but they said they wish more LNG projects had been greenlit earlier, noting that former B.C. Liberal premier Christy Clark was championing the industry as far back as 2011. “The rection is obviously ecstatic,” said Conservative candidate Claire Rattee. “But this is something that should have come five years ago.” At an unrelated news conference, B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson weighed in too. “It’s frustrating because, you know, 10 years ago there were six or seven of these projects that were ready to go,” he said. Eby and his NDP predecessor John Horgan did get the LNG Canada project across the line, but both previously criticized Clark’s enthusiasm for the industry’s potential. Asked on Monday about Clark’s contribution to the industry, Eby pointed to the NDP’s subsequent, stricter environmental requirements. “Christy Clark and the Conservatives had a different approach,” Eby said. “They were just like, ‘Let ‘er rip.’ They weren’t worried about those standards, and they didn’t deliver a single facility—not one,” said the NDP leader. Clark recalls being ridiculed for her support for LNG. “Literally, David Eby and John Horgan called it a pipe dream,” said Clark. “They said I was a ridiculous, dumb woman who had come up with this idea that would never work. Well, guess what? It worked.” Meanwhile, the B.C. Greens and their Leader Emily Lowan don’t support LNG at all. Lowan raised concerns Tuesday about emissions from LNG fracking and the fact that although the Kitimat-based project will generate thousands of jobs, it’s owned by foreign companies. “It is incredibly disappointing to see our governments backing projects like this rather than in investing in Canadian-owned industries that allow our country to move up the value chain,” said Lowan Tuesday. And with an NDP base that includes some ardent environmentalists, Tuesday’s announcement may not signal all good news for Eby if some of that NDP base goes Green. “(Vote-splitting on the left) cost the NDP five or 10 ridings in the last election,” said political scientist Hamish Telford. “It could cost them again in this election.”
