Premier David Eby has for months been using wartime imagery to describe the threat of American tariffs, calling it “declaration of economic war” and “the most consequential time for our province since the Second World War.”

But it wasn’t until he tabled his government’s new tariff legislation Thursday that we finally understood how serious he was about that metaphor, proposing the most extraordinary law in a generation to give himself unprecedented wartime powers.

Bill 7, the “Economic Stabilization (Tariff Response) Act” basically cuts out the legislature for two years when it comes to making decisions about anything to do with B.C.’s economy. The premier’s cabinet will have the power to amend any law, overwrite any policy, change any regulation, levy any fee, or gather anyone’s personal data with simply the stroke of a pen in a cabinet order.

Gone is the need for pesky public debate on the floor of the people’s house, or votes by the 93 people elected to represent their communities. Instead, one person, heading a 28-person cabinet, gets to marshal the full might of the........

© BIV