“In Over Its Head”: The Globe and Mail’s Scathing Verdict on NDP Governance

It is one thing when critics, opposition politicians, or advocacy groups say a government is failing. It is another thing when the Globe and Mail says it.

In a recent column, Globe and Mail BC correspondent Gary Mason — not a partisan voice, not a Conservative, not a blogger — delivered what amounts to a comprehensive verdict on David Eby and the BC NDP. The headline said it plainly: “B.C.’s NDP government appears in over its head.”

Mason is not given to hyperbole. His column catalogues three distinct areas where the NDP has not just stumbled, but failed — and failed in ways that have made things measurably worse.

Failure #1: Drug Decriminalization — A Disaster, Reversed

Perhaps the highest-profile policy failure of the Eby era was BC's experiment with drug decriminalization. Under a federal exemption, BC became the first Canadian province to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of hard drugs for personal use.

The goal was to treat addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal one — a legitimate policy objective. The reality was different. Opioid deaths did not fall. Public drug use became visible and alarming in parks, playgrounds, and transit. Communities across the province demanded action. Even supporters of decriminalization acknowledged the pilot had gone wrong.

The result: a massive public backlash. The NDP was forced to reverse course, ending the decriminalization experiment under intense political pressure. The province reversed a policy it had championed with pride, because it didn't work — and because the NDP had no plan for what came next.

Mason calls it bluntly: the drug decriminalization policy “didn’t work. Massive public backlash.”

Failure #2: The Deficit — “Blowing Sterling Fiscal Record to Smithereens”

BC's fiscal record was once something both NDP and BC Liberal governments could point to with pride. The province maintained relative fiscal discipline over decades — balanced budgets, manageable debt, a AAA credit rating.

That is over.

Under Eby, BC is now projecting:

Mason is direct about the cause: “Mr. Eby has taken the province’s relatively sterling fiscal track record and blown it to smithereens. B.C. is forecasting a deficit of $13.3-billion for 2026-27, $12.2-billion the following year and multiple billions the year after that. Why? Because Mr. Eby and his colleagues refuse to make tough choices.”

Refuse to make tough choices. That is a serious charge against a government that has just cancelled hospitals, eliminated 15,000 public sector positions, and clawed back nurses' benefits — while simultaneously signing $283-million Indigenous restoration deals with no legislative vote.

The NDP's answer to every fiscal question is the same: global uncertainty, US trade tensions, federal policy. What the Globe says — and what many economists agree — is that the structural problem is spending commitments the province cannot afford and a government unwilling to say no.

Failure #3: DRIPA — A Law Eby Helped Write Is Swallowing His Government

The third failure identified by Mason is in some ways the most consequential: the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).

DRIPA was passed in 2019. Eby, as Attorney General at the time, helped draft it. The law committed BC to aligning provincial legislation with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). It was celebrated as a landmark achievement in reconciliation.

Then came the court cases.

Eby's response? Announce he would amend DRIPA and the Interpretation Act to protect the province from runaway court decisions. Then, one day later — after threats from Indigenous leaders — announce he would instead suspend the yet-to-be-disclosed sections of those acts for three years.

Then, after a leaked transcript exposed Indigenous leaders' fury at that plan, Eby abandoned the suspension entirely and agreed to leave DRIPA exactly as it was — in exchange for a vague promise from Indigenous leaders to “discuss and consider” the government's concerns.

Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer, describing the spectacle, compared Eby to “a guy emerging from a hostage-taking and reading a statement prepared by his captors.”

Now everyone is angry: Indigenous leaders who feel the government is untrustworthy; property owners who fear their land is insecure; businesses and miners who can't plan around shifting legal ground; and ordinary citizens who want to know why a Premier can't hold a position for 48 hours.

What This Means

A Globe and Mail columnist declaring that a provincial government “appears in over its head” is not a minor political moment. The Globe reaches the professional and business community across BC, and its assessment of Eby's government reflects a growing consensus among centrist, non-partisan observers.

The NDP's political theory has always been that Eby's personal competence and credibility would carry the government through difficult times. The Leger poll — showing 54% of BC on the wrong track and Eby's disapproval rising fast — and the Globe's assessment together suggest that theory is no longer working.

Mason's conclusion is worth quoting in full: “There’s a reason Premier David Eby’s personal popularity has fallen off a cliff: people are losing faith in his ability to steer the province through the choppy waters governments inevitably face. On the contrary, the NDP is making things worse.”

Making things worse. Three words. From the Globe and Mail.

British Columbia deserves a government that can make difficult decisions, hold a policy position, and manage public money responsibly. On the evidence of drug decriminalization, the deficit, and DRIPA, that is not what it has.