Divide and conquer. It’s the new strategy the BC NDP government is deploying against what used to be two major allies: The First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC) and the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM).

Both have fallen offside with Premier David Eby’s administration in the last month over their vocal calls for him to pause Bills 14 and 15 due to a lack of consultation and potential infringements on Indigenous rights.

Eby, so far, has refused. Instead, the NDP has started chipping away at the political credibility of the organizations, suggesting in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that they don’t truly represent the views of their members, and that the government knows better than they do what people actually want.

The premier has multiple times in the last week responded to questions about FNLC concerns by pointing out he’s hearing support from unspecified individual First Nations chiefs, as well as the eight nations that make up the modern treaty process.

Eby argued last week he’d “also had a very positive meeting with modern treaty nations” and that FNLC was just one group his government was consulting with, including rights and title holders across the province.

On Monday, he held a press conference about fast-tracking mines to showcase the support of three nations from the province’s northwest, the Tahltan Central Government, Taku........

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