What a difference a week makes in provincial politics.

BC Conservative Leader John Rustad started on a high after a strong endorsement at his party’s weekend AGM, but ended with his leadership under fire over his refusal to discipline MLA Dallas Brodie for her odious residential school comments and attacks on fellow MLAs.

Meanwhile, Premier David Eby lurched through one of the least impressive provincial budgets in recent memory, before wrapping the week as Captain Canada — unfurling a giant Canadian flag at the legislature, issuing sanctions against America and channelling the public mood into a strong declaration that Canadians are “pissed off” at U.S. President Donald Trump.

Such is B.C. politics these days, where fortunes can change at a whim, news cycles are measured in mere hours and much depends on the mood of the leader in the White House some 4,700 kilometres away.

Blue Budget

Eby and Finance Minister Brenda Bailey received a tepid reaction to Tuesday’s $10.9-billion deficit budget. Although it racked up massive increases to debt, it also did little other than hold the line on health care, education and social services spending.

“For the most part, this is a ‘more of the........

© BIV