Premier David Eby was running late from his hotel on budget day, and trying to grab some eggs from the continental breakfast, when an older woman at a nearby table yelled, “Hey, David.”

The premier, accustomed to getting called out randomly in public, approached the five-person table, whereupon the woman gave him some unsolicited advice on how to handle the 25 per cent tariffs U.S. President Donald Trump had just made official that morning.

“She said, ‘My dad was a World War II vet,’” recalled Eby. “And she said, ‘If he was here, he would tell you, don't let the bastards grind you down. You're big enough to stand on your own two feet. Now go fight like hell.’”

Eby recounted the story in his speech Tuesday in response to Trump’s tariffs.

Privately, he called it a “moving experience” and said people at another nearby table shouted “Yeah!” after the woman finished speaking.

“It felt like a pep rally,” he said.

The premier carried that enthusiasm into his speech, when he announced “all bets are off” in the province’s response to the United States. It was the rhetorical highlight of an otherwise confusing, drab and at times alarming provincial budget day.

Despite a month to prepare,........

© BIV