'Hunky-dory' no more: UBCM conference shows new areas where B.C. NDP is playing defence

Being in the same building as virtually every mayor and councillor in B.C. for five days is a good way to judge the province's political temperature.

And while Premier John Horgan received his traditional standing ovation at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention-ending speech on Friday, it was clear the mood was cooler than the last two years.

"There's been a dramatic difference from last year, where things were basically hunky-dory for the NDP. Now they're in hiding," said B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson after his own speech to delegates a day before Horgan.

Wilkinson's depiction of the NDP in hiding wasn't entirely true;Horgan didn't meet with some of the mayors with the biggest complaints, but cabinet ministers attended dozens and dozens of meetings and could be seen everywhere.

But like many governments into year three of a mandate, the NDP have more local leaders with bones to pick than they did in year one or two.

A 'thou shalt' philosophy

Controversy at ICBC, the declining forest industry, and disagreements with municipalities aren't new issues in British Columbia but they're now topics the government has to defend its own record on, instead of immediately pivoting to criticizing the previous government.

It was those parts of Wilkinson's speech that garnered the most applause.

His criticisms of new taxes got a fairly middling response possibly because local leaders don't have too much sympathy for people who own second homes, and the new payroll health tax isn't minded by most of the people who no longer pay MSP premiums as a result.

But when Wilkinson brought up the fact ICBC rates were rising significantly for some people, more than 18 months after the Attorney General said he was getting the "dumpster fire" under control, there was hearty applause.

And he got the same level of response when he decried the government's response to the forestry crisis. Or mentioned the backlash seen in a number of places to modular housing or needle handout programs.

The entire speech characterized the NDP government as heavy handed and condescending, with Wilkinson adding "thou shalt" on multiple occasions to summarize NDP policy.

"We have a government that seems to have a master plan and they know best, and they're going to tell the world how it should work. That's not what democracy is about," he said.

Not everyone will agree. But it's probably a more potent argument than what Wilkinson often repeated in his first two years as opposition leader that the NDP is a standard "tax and spend" left-wing government which failed to move the polling needle.

Urban rural divide?

Government officials acknowledged the changing mood this UBCM convention, but privately weren't too worried about it.

They said after two years of quickly enacting much of their agenda, there would be fewer opportunities at this UBCM to make new promises, and more chances for opponents to focus on areas of contention that have arisen in the last two years.

With a record turnover of new mayors and councillors, there was also a smaller contingent of delegates who had built up a list of grievances from the 16 years the B.C. Liberals were in power.

Much of the criticism came from municipalities outside Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria.

While those were parts of the province less essential to the NDP forming government, their discontent might have been one reason why Horgan spent much of his speech talking about his support for the forest industry, and the need to bridge the urban-rural divide in the province.

"We depend on each other. There would be no urban British Columbia were it not from the resources that come from upcountry, and if upcountry couldn't depend on the services and the ports and the infrastructure of the lower mainland, none of it works," he said.

"If we focus together on acknowledging that our diversity is our strength, we will be successful. In fact, that is why we're successful."

It's not a bad line to end a week-long conference that links the entire province. But everything before it was a reminder that B.C. is closer to its next provincial election than it is to the past one.