B.C.’s NDP government is breathing a long, heavy sigh of relief after watching Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives come up short in the federal election.

The result staves off what was shaping up to be a major showdown between Premier David Eby’s administration and a potential federal Conservative government over crime and addictions policies that Poilievre intended to force upon the province.

It was all part of an openly hostile relationship between the two leaders — who never spoke, never met, never even ran backchannel conversations between senior staff; they just lobbed verbal grenades at each other in public.

So in that sense, the federal Liberal victory on Tuesday night was also a victory for the BC NDP.

A re-elected Liberal party keeps in place an already functional working relationship between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Eby. It also continues all the cabinet committees, task forces and other organizational working groups between Victoria........

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