Eby Asked for a Mandate. Four Cabinet Chairs Are Already Empty.

Premier David Eby asked British Columbians for a new mandate. The question now is why so much of his own cabinet is not asking voters to renew theirs.

Global News reported that Bailey, the Vancouver-South Granville MLA first elected in 2020, will not run again in the October 24 provincial vote. The report said she was most recently minister of jobs, economic development and innovation, and that she said she is cancer-free and regaining strength after an early-stage cancer diagnosis and surgery.

That personal context matters. Bailey’s health and recovery should not be used as a political weapon. No one is obligated to keep running for office, and a humane debate has to respect that boundary.

But the political pattern is still real. PentictonNow reported that Bailey’s announcement followed decisions by Health Minister Ravi Kahlon, Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene and Agriculture Minister Lana Popham not to seek re-election. These are not anonymous backbenchers. They are ministers who held major files while Eby now asks voters to extend the NDP’s authority.

Bailey’s file also connects directly to the record voters are being asked to judge. On August 14, the premier’s office announced cabinet changes after Bailey took leave from the finance ministry for cancer treatment and recovery. The same release said Bailey would return to the jobs and economic growth portfolio, with Diana Gibson moving to finance and Josie Osborne shifting to attorney general.

Before that shuffle, Bailey had tabled Budget 2026. The government’s own budget release forecast a $13.3-billion deficit for 2026-27 and said the plan relied on tax changes, spending controls and slower capital pacing to protect services while trying to improve the fiscal outlook. Less than seven months later, the first quarterly report raised the projected 2026-27 deficit to $13.8 billion, $450 million higher than the February projection.

That is the accountability point. Eby did not call this snap election after a full term and a settled record. He called it while the government’s fiscal numbers had worsened, while major portfolios had been reshuffled, and while four ministers who were part of the governing team were not returning to defend that record as candidates.

The NDP can still make its argument. Bailey says she will support the party on the campaign trail. Kahlon, Greene and Popham each have the right to make their own decisions. But voters also have the right to measure the premier’s confidence claim against the empty chairs around him.

If Eby wants a fresh mandate, British Columbians should ask a simple question: why are so many of the people who carried the old one leaving the ballot now?