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Hey everyone, and welcome to Political Capital here source for all the latest in BC politics.

I'm your host, Rob Shaw.

Thank you so much for joining us as the last show before a bit of a summer break throughout August.

We'll be back in early September.

So we want to do with something a little differently this week.

Take a look back at some of the big stories that have happened in the first half of the year, the ones that kind of stand out as emblematic or important in the way we're kind of viewing BC politics today, Look a bit ahead to the fall, what's coming up that's important that we may be talking about when the show returns, And take a look at some of the standout kind of MLA performers that we've seen so far in the early half of twenty twenty five.

To do that, we're going to bring in the panel.

Jillian Oliver Jeff Ferry are here.

Ali Blades is off this week, which means we will see her again when you see us again in early September.

Thanks to both of you for being here.

We're going to go to you first to kind of pick you a story that stands out for you as one of the big themes we are not going to include to start off with your just Donald Trump tariffs, because I think that is kind of this dominant, overarching thing that we'll fit into a lot of the other picks that we come up with here.

But there's no Trump tariffs.

It's just a single kind of selection here.

Jillian, let's start with you.

What's a big story that sort of stands out for you in the first half of the year that you think is kind of captures BC politics today.

I think it's the government shift to going sort of all in on the economic development and especially resource development, and that manifesting in the sort of session long fight we saw over Bills fourteen and fifteen, those project accelerating bills to speed up major projects.

It was really interesting to see the government shift focus from the election that we had, like actually kind of recently, even though it feels like a lifetime ago, where they said they were going to go slowly and consult and that they had learned that lesson from their previous term, to totally switch gears and say we're going full speed ahead.

We can't do things fast enough.

And see some of the political fall back from that.

Also interesting to see both of the opposition parties decide to oppose it.

I think that's more expected from the Greens, although it was interesting because they're in a partnership agreement with the government and then the Conservatives oppose it as well, even though you know this is something that they basically campaigned on and would support if they were in government.

So interesting to see them come out of the election and sort of start to make those real political decisions that'll shape their future ahead of the next election.

It really did upend the kind of political tape there, like I think, six months after the election to move so quickly.

Jeff, let's just get your sort of response to that.

And also I think Gillian's right.

We talked about in the past too that the Conservative reaction too to oppose something they theoretically support, but not when the NDP do it.

Well, Hiophilia, she also supports that as well.

Jeff, what do you think of that?

Yeah, No, I think the number one issue in British Columbia in the first six months was Donald Trump.

Terris, Now let's talk about that at length.

No.

I think Gillian picks the fundamental economics story of the first half of the year.

I think that the second half of the year.

We'll talk about this more later in the show is going to be about can the government make this legislation work and get some major projects built.

I also think Jillian raises a really interesting point about the conservatives reaction to the legislation in Ottawa where the Prime Minister brought in similar a similar set of laws.

The Conservatives voted for it, and their position was it's a good first step, but we're going to be there to hold the government to account on the bill and make sure that they're delivering, which strikes me as the position that John Rustdad and the Conservatives might have taken here that would have been more attuned to their values and their brand than lining up with the Greens, who are this is right on brand for them standing up for review, proper review, permits and authorizations.

But it's an odd spot that the Conservatives found themselves in and it shows that they're still a work in progress, and we'll see what they can drum up in the second half of the year to try and get back on track.

It is to me such a fascinating you know, when you sort of pull back and look at you know, BC politics and the trends.

Is so fascinating to watch a government that almost lost the election, that reversed on several positions right before the election because it had the wrong read on the electorate on decriminalization and on you know, voluntary care, and on the carbon tax, and then came out of the election saying, man, we got to slow down and listen to people.

Turn around and with Bill seven, say it was just the first of the bills.

We're going to do what needs to be done.

We need more power to do it, and if you don't like it, we'll go to an election on it.

And you're like, wow, that's quite a that is quite a change in tone from a government.

And so to me, I totally agree with this election because and I think the larger sort of political shift within the NDP from humility after almost losing to a group of what they called racist wackos, to telling everyone that they know exactly what needs to be done and just wait and you'll see that we're right later, including to First Nations chiefs and others, we got to do what we need to do.

We'll check in with you later and I'm sure you'll be happy with what we're doing.

To me, that's just such a fascinating, larger kind of shift in the new Democrat ideology in this year, and Bill seven and fourteen and fifteen really pick on that.

Jeff, Yeah, I.

Think yeah, No, I think that that's an interesting point.

I think that the NDP before the election, we're poor, I'm picking up a trends, but I think here they got the shift in where the people are at on this issue of Donald Trump and the tariff that we're not talking about.

But they pivoted really fast and write in line with where the public was at, and so it seems like they've learned a lesson.

They thought the lesson was we need to slow down and consult more, which I think it was before November, but afterwards did better to shift.

They did better to listen to the public.

And though it's diametrically opposed to what they campaign on in October, it's what voters and citizens at that stage wanted.

Yeah.

I think it's going to be really interesting to see if this is, you know, a moment in time, because Trump is such a mass, massive factor that you know, we saw also the same thing with the federal election that the Liberals had this sort of like crazy comeback that nobody saw coming, and things are changing so fast, and politicians really need to be responsive in the moment.

If that's just because of what's happening right now with the Americans, or if that's a new trend that's here to stay, and you know, we're going to kind of continuously see election promises not matter so much because politicians really need to kind of respond to the change quickly changing information environment and the fast vibe shifts that we keep talking about, and we kind of see those sort of broken promises and sort of a thing of the past, and it's all just about meeting the moment from here on it.

Yeah, meeting the meeting, recognizing and meeting the massive kind of shift in electorate mood.

Is you're right?

That seems to be.

That's the real question.

Does the public settle down if and when this tariff situation gets resolved, and what does that do?

How to politicians view that?

Jeff, do you have a story that you want to highlight for the first half of the year.

I do, since I can't since you've banned me from talking about Donald Trump and.

The tariffs that's going so well.

Yeah, the well, I thought an interesting story was what's going on with the Conservatives BC Conservatives in the first six months of this year.

Here you have a party that in the last election came really close to winning probably the best showing of that party in uh well ever, that party and the it's you know, making real gains on what the former BC Liberals did in the previous election.

And they've had a big split in the party.

They've had people leave the party form their own party.

And it was interesting to see the split not over policy or healthcare.

It was about whether it was okay to acknowledge deaths of First Nation's Indigenous kids in residential school.

And this was done.

You might say it's done by MLA's who've moved to another party, but these were folks who were greenlit, rubber stamped by John russ Dad in the election.

Now he tried to rein it in after the damage was done, but then he just made things worse by accusing people who were posed to his leadership of criminal offense, a blackmail which you don't generally on an email, in writing, which is generally something you don't see leaders who are in control do.

And then the NDIEP said let's have a police investigation into this and then Russ Dad walked it back against showing these.

A bit.

Out of touch.

And even this week we have First Ministers meeting talking about Donald Trump and the tariffs, signing trade deals with Ontario, Manitoba and the Yukon.

Everyone was watching what was happening with the Red Crisp mind and the miners who were trapped there and thank goodness that they got out safe.

And you had John russ Dad and his team talking about canceling the Patillo Bridge and don Cherry and poppies, so poppies in July.

It's an interesting call.

And they have a bunch of moderates in the party who came in the last election because they sensed an opportunity to grab power and they've been with a few exceptions, you know, Peter Millibar and the Indigenous issues have been really silent.

And so if the story for the Conservatives was supposed to be we are showing British Columbians that were a sensible alternative to the government that they can trust us in the next election to replace the NDP.

They're not there yet.

Yeah, Jillian, what do you think of that?

Yeah?

I think it speaks to a lot of things.

I think the first is like just like a really constant truth in politics that it's so much easier to hold together a party when power is within grasp.

And I think, you know, you saw the sort of ship with the Conservatives rest At having a really strong handle on leadership during the election when they thought they might win, and then they didn't, and now he's struggling to manage a sort of unrubly caucus that all has their own agenda and opinions, and I think, you know, just kind of it's an interesting thing where we kind of see the political realities of governing a party spilling over into the public.

And I think also, you know, just the echoes of infighting can resonate for so long.

You have not only former Conservative MLAs who splintered off to their own party, but also staff and people that have these sort of like personal grudges which can be very motivating but obviously very toxic and can continue through for years and even decades, like we've seen in politics, and it's just it's always so interesting to see how those sort of personal dynamics play into the broader political picture.

And you know, the parties try to kind of act like it's about issues, but often it's about what's underneath.

And I think you're really seeing that with the Conservatives, and it's going to be so fascinating to watch as they wrap up their leadership reviewing.

And also in a larger level, how hard it is to kind of hold bigger tent parties together.

And I'm not saying the Conservatives are big tent, but they're kind of going through a little bit of what maybe the NDP went through a while ago, or as the environmental people with strong environmental views prefer to have, you know, rally around the Greens and prefer to kind of maybe not compromise that within the NDP tent and find a different platform to express it.

And that's happening in the Conservatives too.

The big tent party is harder in this environment, especially with razor thin majorities where you can split off and have you know, influence that exceeds your few thousand votes that you got and maybe a couple of seats because of how close things are in the legislature.

So yeah, and interesting, the rest dads still survived as we speak, he is still in control, so we'll see what happens and maybe a topic as we switch to what's happening this fall and things that we should be looking forward to when we come back that might be defining the political agenda.

Gulian, let's stick with you on that.

What do you think is going to be a big topic this fall.

I think one of the first big things we're going to get is a fiscal update and the sort of impacts of some of the decisions that the government has been making.

So far, we haven't seen that be like a huge political issue.

We kind of just continue to charge ahead.

But the government's been kind of like ragging the puck on it, saying that they're looking under every rock for cuts, you know, trying to see if they can tighten their belt while so it's trying to get some of these big projects on track to encourage growth to sort of make up some of the shortfalls that they're having.

But they're not going to be able to do that forever.

So it's going to be interesting to see if the deficit is bigger than it's already been reported and if that matters.

Yeah, it feels like it will be.

We've seen some economist talk, not just about the fact that the carbon tax being canceled was almost two billion in revenue.

But the GDP partly due to Trump again and kind of the economic uncertainty is weaker than forecast.

Housing has softened, which impacts property transfer tax and real estate starts and housing starts.

And Jeff, it looks like the budget update could be a very bad one in September.

I'll say it's going to be an interesting one for sure.

I think Jillian makes good points about the fiscal update.

I think related to that we're going to see in the fall as public sector bargaining.

You know, the.

Government already now engage in with BCGEU, the government workers, thirty four thousand of them.

They're asking for significantly more than what the province is offering.

Would turn you know, over two years it would be four billion dollars versus what the government is offering them just two billion dollars.

Obviously, that's going to have an impact on the bottom line, fiscal update, the budget and where BC's at in this capacity deliver on you know, importance servers like healthcare and education, and that's just one union.

They're going to be engaging with the teachers, going to be engaging with the nurses, They're going to work with other health workers across the across the public sector, and you have this structural deficit, you have the problems trying to dig out from it through economic development, and it's got this big, huge pressure on them now, which is to hold the line on a compensation for workers, which if we're talking off brand NDP, that's this is you know, the last round of bargaining was very good for public sector units.

This time it's going to be really tough and it's going to have an impact on finances of the province.

So we'll see how that plays out in the fall.

And I also think another sort of trend line to follow through on that is the government's promise to do some type of cost cutting and efficiencies, which new Democrats have never done in the eight years that they've been in power.

Is a very sensitive and difficult issue, fraught with all sorts of kind of political ramifications when you start cutting and removing and in some cases hiring, freeze or laying people off within government, and the deficit, if we do see it in September being in the realm of thirteen to fifteen billion dollars, no amount of cost cutting is going to get the government anywhere close to that without going through with a hatchet.

And so the expectation of using that to help soften or chart a pass to balance is minimal, but the pain is going to be real, and I'll be interested to see how far the government actually goes in implementing that when it's not possible to kind of achieve the goals I'm doing, especially in the healthcare system at the same time through the health authorities and elsewhere.

Plus it it adds a bit of a lens that we constantly come back to on the show too, where decisions the government is making get thrown back in its face over trying to be efficient inside the government.

Why are you spending money on X when you're supposed to be finding efficiencies in here?

Why are you hiring a person over here to do this special review when you should be doing it?

Kind of becomes a persistent sort of narrative too that is fascinating for the government to have to deal with.

So keep an eye to keep an eye on that.

Jeff, did you have another fall topic?

Well, the other fall topic is the BC Greens leadership race.

It looks like it's becoming kind of a two vision contest.

Within the party of the one candidate who's a doctor who expect he will chill you a doctor's.

Name, Gillian working on his campaign, all of us would know that, yes.

But here's here's a candidate who's taking the view that the Greens should be a provincial party, that they should have a broad range of positions on all of the issues facing the province, and they should be positioning cells to be a governing alternative to the NDP.

And on the other side, I don't want to forget their.

Names, Adam Bremner, Aikins, but.

I've read their positions, I've seen how they're positioning themselves, and it seems like the direction they would take the party into would be more of a protest party, would be focused on a few issues and trying to raise awareness and seek gains on those.

So it's going to be interesting to see what the party is going to try and position itself as I think we've seen Sonia first and I'll try to make it into the broader alternative, but it's up to voters in the Green Party to determine where they're going to go when.

It'll be interesting to see that in the fall.

A larger sort of existential crisis for the Greens at this point.

We've seen it federally, we're seeing it sort of provincially when you after several elections kind of appear sort of stuck at this point of two to three MLA's where do you go?

How do you grow that?

What does that look like?

Jillian, I know, and we've disclaimered this on previous shows.

You are working on with Jonathan Kurr's campaign, But what do you think of the stakes in the leadership race here?

Yeah, I think it's a really interesting time for the party to be reflecting.

Like I think the pro of having a leadership contest so early in the electoral cycle is that the leader will come in September and be able to spend three years building the party ahead of the next election.

But they're sort of being asked to choose a brand that is going to have that staying power, and earlier in the show, just how quickly things can change.

And I think, you know, it's a tough it's a tough debate kind of to be having right now because everything you know feels so urgent, yet we're making this decision for the future, and I think you know it is.

It is a like an existential question for the party if they want to continue to grow and elect, be more broadly appealing across the province, or if they want to sort of, you know, double down on being a protest party.

It's it's been fascinating to work on.

And let's see if the Greens can be the first party that I have ever covered in seventeen years of politics to have a leadership race without any type of controversy or scandal or debate over the voting method or pins or eligibility.

We'll see if they managed to pull that off by September the twenty fourth.

All right, carrying on here to talk about some of the folks on the show.

You know, we're often repeating Premier David eb and some of the top sort of folks you hear again and again and again.

But just wanting to highlight in a kind of larger level here some of the work that different MLAs are doing that sort of stands out.

Jillian, pick somebody here and talk a bit about what they've been doing.

Yeah, I wanted to talk about Jeremy Valariet, who's been interim leader of the Greens.

It's a good time to talk about him, because he will be stepping down from that post when the new leader comes in in September.

He had a couple of cool moments in the legislature, especially he happened to be doing representing the Greens and premier's estimates, which is like one of the opportunities that opposition in MLAs and leaders have to go kind of toe to toe with the premier in the legislature.

But it happened to be Blurgate day, and so if everybody remembers that, so the Conservatives all walked out and forfeited their time and didn't actually get to question Premier eb So it was just Jeremy and he did a really good job, like got a little bit spicy questioning him on Bill's fourteen and fifteen, and I think, you know, considering he's a rookie, Emila did a good job holding his own in the legislature.

And then he also got some clear wins through Carga, the agreement that the Greens have with the NDP, like for transit expanded for his riding, which is like I think for like an opposition MLA from a small party to campaign on something and then get such a clear win is just like a cool story of politics like working as it should, especially like outside of a traditional like binary two party system, and is kind of just like a nice heartening story for people that sometimes feel like nothing good ever happens in politics.

And then a bunch of other stuff in Carga, like they got heat pumps for low income people, helping people keep full disability benefits even if they get a federal benefit, and enhancing like rental assistance programs, and really concrete things that I think, you know, the Greens can can feel good about going back to voters and saying like this is what you get if you elect more Greens, which I really think helps them with that sort of strategic voting argument that they always come up against.

And so yeah, he's done like good actual things, good political things, and I think he can leave his post as interim leader feeling good about his tenure.

It's hard in a way for him because he's having to step into such big shoes, right.

I mean, by the time that Sonia first know Adam Wilson's left the Greens, they were sharp, articulate, you know, in the case of Adam Wilson, very passionate, orators and the legislature who kind of were able to bring such attention to issues and hold the government too account.

They developed that knowledge they could go back and talk about the hypocrisy of different government positions and you know, it's tough to come in and fill those shoes and do a job.

But you raise some good points there.

Before I go to you, Jeff, I'm going to throw a name out here.

I think Courtney Comac's Conservative in LA Brennan Day has really stepped up.

His title is rural health critic and Senior's critic.

He might as well be the health critic for that party.

I don't know where the health critic is Anna Kindy, I have no idea.

It's a big file in government.

But Brennan Day is the one who seems to be pushing the issues.

He's been talking about the waight times on ers.

He led the recent FI on people who walk away from ers increasing dramatically in BC because of the weight times.

He's been active on the rare drug and Charlie Pollock issue.

He's been active in the legislature.

He's always digging up things, finding stories good in question period.

You know, sometimes you kind of meet MLAs on the opposition side, which is a very particular job who just sort of get it.

They just get that.

Kind of their job is to go out in the community, find people who are having trouble with government or.

Who are.

Emblematic of a larger problem in the system, and just bring their stories forward and just kind of find stuff, talk to people.

And he's out there doing it, and I think a quiet star performer for the Conservatives.

And again he might as well be the health critic at this point because he's pretty much doing all the work there is my first pick on that.

Anyways, Jeff, what do you think.

I think Brendan Days a moderate constructive m l A and anakind Is is not and I think that's why you see him taking on the rule he did.

Gillian Makes made an interesting point about the Conservatives and estimates and how they took a powder so when it came crashing down and rust Dad hurt inside, he didn't take a stand.

He chose to run and hide.

So that was because he hurt his friends and he hurt his pride.

I think, yeah, he did.

He's not a real Canadian.

That's going too far.

We took it as far as took as far as we could on that song.

But anyways, give me.

Your dad is a real Canadian.

Okay, that's rest in peace, Haul Cogan.

Yeah, give me one of your performers is so far.

Well the one I chose.

And some people will say it's because he used to be my boss, but it's not that.

It's Adrian Dix.

I think here's a guy who in the last six months has done a total reinvention of himself.

You know, he spent seven really tough years in health, including during a pandemic.

Everyone said when he was moved from health that he would always be seen as a health minister, But now, certainly in the business community and with labor, nobody's calling him health minister anymore because he didn't just step into his new role as the Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions.

He's been owning it and it's more about it's less about what he's done, and he's done a lot.

So nine new wind and solar projects just signed a deal for the North Coast Transmission Line, which is a with First Nations and BC Hydro, which is going to be a catalyst of energy and mind and investment up north.

But the work he's been doing behind the scenes to bring the business community along, to bring workers along, has been remarkable.

You hear him.

Remember in that twenty thirteen election, he was against Trans Mountain.

He was he and the party were talking about fracking.

They said site was a waste of money.

And now here's a guy who in the last six months went to Calgary to meet with energy people at the you know who we are well known for a tent going to the Petroleum Club, an NDP person there and won them over by talking about how BC is the province of economic development, how our northeast natural gas is a huge asset and needs to be developed, how LNG is going to be the cleanest in the in the in the world and part of BC's future.

He talked about electricity being a catalyst for economic development.

He talked about Sightsee being the future and important.

He talked about trans Mountain of all things, the issue where you might say he lost the twenty thirteen election, calling it essential.

Talked about dredging Bard Barard Harbor so that they can get more oil out of out of from Alberta through British Columbia to Asian markets.

Like this seems very much like a Nixon goes to China moment.

You know, we talk about reinvention of the NDP from before and after the election.

You know, here's Adrian Dix now the fiercest defender of BC's economy inside the NDP government and business leaders who were not a big supporters of Dicks before are now saying, you know, more of this, more of this police.

So it's a really interesting story about leaders evolving, delivering a new role and bringing people along with him.

So he's been a Minister of Energy and every sense of that word.

And also Gillian, I'm just expecting as a part of a reaction to this, also he is going to be the guy who rolls back or slightly changes the clean BC Plan, which we have already seen elements of, right, the development of more natural resources, the curtailment of some of the climate goals, the shift in areas of electric vehicle rebates and possibly mandates the electrific case.

There's there's also movement that Dix is responsible for, very delicately different from the party's position there too in the past.

Yeah, I think that hebe is probably feels grateful to have him be willing to be the face of that, because I don't think that he wants it feels comfortable doing that.

I also I think that's like the other big story for the fall is going to be like when these big project actually have like specific names for specific projects.

I think, you know, we saw a lot of pushback from you know, first Nations and environmental groups about what it could mean, but it was all theoretical and it's kind of hard, I think, to get political traction on something that's theoretical when it's just the enabling legislation.

But when they're actual projects that have names and we know what the consequences or risks are, it's going to be a different story.

And he's going to be the face of, you know, defending those and managing those relationships and responding to the Greens, who I'm sure you know are going to come back with a new leader with lots of kind of fire behind their positions on different things depending on what they are, and also managing the sort of it's like got national implications.

Right.

We just saw the premiers meeting wrap up and I think there the government's breathing a bit of a sigh of relief that the Alberta seems to have dropped the Northern Gateway rhetoric down a little bit, but I think that is going to come with a greater push for more LNG, maybe another expansion of trans Mountain and so you know, being in the being the public face of expanding fossil fuel infrastructure when they've promised to be climate leaders is going to be like a tricky political dance to be making.

And I guess he's willing to take that on.

But he's good at it, you know, like the Adrian dix Will has been able to articulate the government's position on dredging.

You know, Barrard inlet On saying why he opposed TMX expansion but now says it's built, let's be foolish to not use it, to maximize the use of it.

That it's done, Like he's you're right.

I think he's lucky that he's and he's very good with numbers, and there's a lot of numbers in the energy file and so he's, uh, he'll be a formidable apartment if you want to start debating gigglewatt hour production or something like that.

Yeah, it's very technical.

Good luck with that with the with Adrian Dick.

So I think another person I'll throw a name out here that that EB is very lucky to have is Rabbi klor On, who has been shuffled into Jobs and Economic Development, but is really kind of his top lieutenant on all He's kind of the catch all guy that he has become this year on Trump, on tariffs, on US relations on sharing, the Cabinet Committee response to that, on dealing with the business community.

He's leveraged his housing relationships to sort of move into that business community sphere.

Now he's in Jobs and Economic Development, he's sort of the executeur of eb's more than anyone else in cabinet.

He's been able to take what the Premier has wanted done from way back when he ran for leader and execute it through his housing changes.

And we'll see what that looks like in jobs and economic development.

So he continues to be in many ways the actual sort of deputy Premier I think, although that's not his title, and a link between the premium and the caucus, and continues to play the role that he played ever since the beginning when he chose to endorse David Ebe, which is taking a lone wolf leader and a small cadre of staff who live in a vacuum in a bubble in space and liaising them into the real world and the caucus and helping keep that party together very quietly behind the scenes when it could very easily evolve into a split within that caucus.

And so I think he does a lot of quiet work.

Behind the We just talked about the strong minister in the government and you're saying it's all around of the Premier's office.

Adrian Dix is proving you wrong.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, But I think it's a he's a he's a quiet deputy premier in without the title in in the government and EV's lucky to have him.

And if you a handful of the folks that are, I mean, I think the cabinet shuffle showed there's that you've sort of maxed out everyone who has a job now and the bench is a little bit weak when you get to a certain point.

And he's lucky he's got some top show folks around him at the core kind of cabinet table.

So anyone else want to throw out another name of anybody before I toss out one, Yeah, one.

Millibar, Peter Millibar, who I think he's so such an interesting one.

He's really one of those like almost rare for the bigger parties m las that really like just is so substantial on his file and really commits to the issue first rather than like the political spin of it, although he's he's good at that too.

He was environment critic when I used to work in the legislature, and I was always so impressed with his sort of like nuance on issues, and he was a really great environmental critic when there wasn't like a ton of like political benefit to the at the time.

Vc LI girls to being strong on that file.

And now he goes to to toe with a mister of finance and estimates, is always well researched.

He can be funny, and he is super substantial.

And he also was such a standout talking about the residential school denihilism and doing the right thing when that issue came up, and like, I think, you know that really just says everything about an MLA when they're willing to stand up and do the right thing even when it's it's hard politically for their own party, and just wanted to shout them out for that.

Yeah, that's a great point.

I'd forgotten about that moment, but that he certainly did put his own values as a human being into that equation and didn't sit there and just read party lines or hide from it.

So that says a lot.

Yeah, understands.

Yeah you want to throw respond to.

That, Yeah, I have a few just on Melvar.

He also does an outstanding job of trolling me on Twitter, which is whenever I see a response from Peter, it's always interesting.

And after the last one he did, I said, hey, people's gope for a coffee.

I'm still waiting for you to take me up my offer to have a coffee because you seem like a good dude.

Just three names I want to throw out there as kind of rising stars and the legislature for the Conservatives.

Elijah Warbus, who's brought something really substantial and to the legislature, a strong voice and really focused on substance rather than a lot of the silliness that happens around the legislature and within the government side.

Jesse Center and Nina Kreeger, two people who have been promoted to cabinet.

By all accounts their razor sharp.

Krieger is going into a really tough ministry and public safety and Solicitor General, which is an interesting first place to go.

But these are two rising stars in the NDP.

I think you'll see them emerge as you know new rav Kalons.

Potentially, the potential is there.

We'll see how they form.

But those are three folks who I think stepped up and or are stepping up.

Now, okay, I'll add one more just to go back.

And this is no surprise on the opposition side, but it's hard to not mention top performers and not mentioned Eleanor Stirco, who remains a one person nightmare for the government perpetually.

She I think single handedly led to the rollback of unwitnessed Safe supply earlier this year, getting those leaked documents internally from the ministry that finally kind of put to light the international trafficking that was going on on that ended up embroiled in a government ordered police investigation on her, which was we've talked about in the past show.

I think she's so fascinating to watch because she could be such a divisive figure in some ways within the Conservative caucus, and we some of those one BC folks who split off who simply won't deal with her because she's a leader in the LGBTQ community.

They belittle her for that.

The government finds her very triggering in that they don't they question her authenticity in terms of why she's doing what she does, which is just the wrong way to approach and this government continues to do this.

But this is another rant.

The wrong way to approach topics is to personalize them on the critic, and they do that with Eleanor Stirco, and they fail to miss repeatedly that she is on the leading edge of public sentiment on many issues.

And I think another one that we're going to be watching here is public safety in hospitals.

She had pinned down this Lister General earlier this year in estimates, admitting that they provide essentially inadequate training to relational security officers in hospitals.

We continue to see islands against nurses, people being choked out, chased by machetes.

Her pitch is some type of armed or police security squad for hospitals, or scanning system or something.

It seems inevitable.

We are going to get to that.

The government doesn't want to hear it, partly because she's saying it.

But I think the new Democrats would be wise to stop to just listen, because her track record in forcing them to change is formidable and she continues to kind of just this year managed to do that.

So perhaps the most single effective opposition critic I think in the legislature right now.

And don't disagree with you figure there, Yeah, don't disagree with at all.

I would just point out the governments don't order police investigations, police top officials in the I don't be said to stop at when it came to light.

That's true, that that was a good moment, the good moment.

So please to see that.

And just on the issue raise about safety and hospital If you're thinking about issues, they're going to come to the four in the second half of this year, that will almost certainly be an issue.

And I don't think we're far away from metal detectors at some hospitals in the province.

And some will push back against it, saying that's going to make people not want to go to hospitals.

I prefer folks not to come to hospitals with machetes, and if they do, they can leave them at the front desk and pick them up when they.

Are leaving.

So I think in that respect, you're going to see another win for her.

Yeah, or even just to I think some type of security change seems to be needed there if we're going to have increasingly violent incidents, unarmed relational security officers who are supposed to engage but only verbally and then call the police.

But they're they're trying everyone's trying to.

I mean, it's it's not a tenable situation.

It doesn't feel like so you.

Know when the government's answer every time that there's an incident to have these relational security officers, well, they're really just making the point that what they have in place now isn't working.

You know, it's it's not getting the job done.

So they're gonna have to have to move.

We'll see if that happens in the second half of the year.

Yeah, okay, anyone, we haven't.

I mean, I'm just could go on and on here, but I think I've sort of reached a small version of my list.

You didn't say, Rob Botterill, you've picked the one.

I picked the one person that he's probably feeling.

Less last time.

I think.

Okay, yeah, because he said he's the guy who said Nini n that's all you need to get me on.

Side fixing those main island potholes.

Not yet Okay, well not yet, but you'll get all right, I'm sure.

Yeah.

A fascinating sort of first half of a year, A fascinating We didn't even talk about the federal election because that's not really part of what we're doing here, but that that did occur in the first half of the year and changed a bunch of things as well, and were going to take a bit of a break here on the show for August, but the summer break, we'll be back in the early part of September.

So make sure you subscribe to the podcast feed so you'll get a ding in the old pod box there when it still sounds weird.

I've been saying it for four years, but the ding in the pod box, you will get it when it comes.

When the next podcast comes out, I think probably the second week of September, and then we'll be right back into it.

So lots of talk about thank you to Jeff, thank you to Jillian, thank you to Ali.

He wasn't here this week, but you guys keep I'm constantly.

I mean, we talk behind the scenes all week and then we get on the show and I still learn incredible things from just listening to both of you and Ali as well, just the points you make.

So thank you for doing it each and every week and helping people understand provincial politics because it's a wild ride we are all on all over the place, so and thank you for listening as well.

We'll be back as soon as we can in September and we will see you then.

Take care, M M