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SURREY, B.C. – New Democrat Leader David Eby has launched his British Columbia election campaign a day early, making the key battle ground of Surrey his first stop. 

The fixed election date of Oct. 19 means the campaign doesn’t officially start until Saturday. 

However, Eby boarded the bus on Friday with his youngest daughter, Gwen, in a baby carrier, accompanied by his wife, Cailey Lynch and their two other children. 

His NDP-orange campaign bus is covered in photos of people, with Eby standing in the centre, along with slogans that say, “action for you,” “homes you can afford,” and “better health care.”

Both B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad and Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau spoke to municipal leaders at the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities Convention Friday, just as Eby was launching his election campaign.

Rustad told delegates that he would get rid of the carbon tax and the low carbon fuel emissions standard, saying the moves would improve affordability.

“It’s making us uncompetitive. It’s a huge cost structure, and the Conservative Party of British Columbia is committed to getting rid of those costs and returning that money back to people to be able to deal with the affordability,” he said.

His statement comes just a week after David Eby said that if Ottawa dropped the legal requirement for carbon pricing, then his New Democrat government would also drop the tax on consumers.

Furstenau told reporters after her speech that the other party leaders are offering “a lot of fear and a lot of anger and a lot of finger pointing.”

She said a minority government would mean “built-in accountability” for the party in power.

“We have a real opportunity in British Columbia in this election to not give any party all of the power, to not have a winner-take-all outcome,” she said. “We see when we have majority governments in this province, they do not deliver on what they promise, but they do a whole bunch of things that they didn’t promise, and they do it without being able to be held accountable by the legislature or by the people of B.C.”

Furstenau said there is a disconnect between what the other provincial leaders are promising on carbon pricing and what municipalities are experiencing.

“We hear from elected representatives about the ongoing and incredibly expensive impacts of climate change-driven events. We cannot at this point backtrack on the idea that carbon pollution doesn’t cost us. It costs us enormously.” 

Eby spoke to local politicians on Thursday, as they presented a laundry list of concerns for the provincial government at the meeting, from homelessness to the overdose crisis and more funding to support growing pressures on municipalities. 

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