He hasn’t even been in the job for a year yet, but David Eby is already establishing himself as perhaps the dominant and most powerful figure in B.C. politics (aside from his boss, Premier John Horgan).
Eby is the attorney general, yet his plate is filled with policies and files that extend well beyond the traditional scope of the province’s top attorney. And those files have some of the furthest reaching implications.
His recent release of a bombshell report on money laundering operations in some Lower Mainland casinos will have reverberations that could be felt for a long time.
Eby must have suspected, when he asked Peter German to conduct the investigation into money laundering, that the eventual findings would be explosive and cast the previous B.C. Liberal government in a horrible light. And that is exactly what happened.
The report effectively shredded the reputations of former key cabinet ministers and soiled – perhaps forever – the B.C. Liberal party brand. By commissioning the report, Eby single-handedly inflicted more damage on the NDP’s arch rivals than anyone could have possibly imagined just a short time ago.
German’s report suggested money laundering could be a major component in some of B.C.’s real estate markets. If the coming probe into that area turns up all kinds of nefarious activities, the government’s balanced budget may begin to teeter. That’s because real estate is a huge part of the B.C. economy and provides a giant chunk of revenue to government: more than $2 billion annually from property transfer tax revenues alone.
Eby is also in charge of another potentially historic issue: the upcoming referendum on electoral reform.
The referendum could redefine politics as we know it in this province. A switch to proportional representation would likely cause both the coalitions that effectively make up both the B.C. Liberals and the NDP to fall apart, or at lease rearrange themselves along different lines.
Officially, Eby is a neutral referee in the debate. But he has been accused of “stacking the deck” in favour of a shift to PR. If that is the outcome, it will be the end of majority governments and Eby will be assigned either fault, or congratulations, for that development.
Finally, Eby is responsible for fixing the financial mess that exists at ICBC. Big changes are needed, and some of them will undoubtedly prove unpopular.
He has already announced some changes (a limit on legal proceedings and injury payouts, for example) but much more needs to be done.
Our car insurance rates are likely to rise significantly in any event, and Eby will likely navigate that tricky road with difficulty.
Put it all together, and Eby may be on his way to affecting housing prices, weakening his government’s balanced budget, determining our car insurance rates, laying the groundwork for changing the voting system, and therefore putting in doubt the fate of our two dominant political parties.
Sounds pretty powerful to me.
– Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global BC.
