David Eby

Early life and career

David Robert Patrick Eby was born in 1976 in Kitchener, Ontario. His father, Brian, was a personal injury lawyer and his mother, Laura, was a teacher, and later an elementary school principal. The eldest of four children, he has a sister, Meaghan, and two brothers named Matthew and Patrick. As a teenager, he took his brother to protest against the treatment of circus elephants. He was president of the student council at St. Mary's High School in his final year.

He studied English at the University of Waterloo and worked for a communications firm after graduation. In 2004, he graduated from the Schulich School of Law in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He articled for the Department of Justice Canada and was called to the bar in June 2005.

He worked at Pivot Legal Society from 2005 to 2008 in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside before becoming the executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) from 2008 until 2012. He is the author of The Arrest Handbook: A Guide to Your Rights, published by the BCCLA.

He was an adjunct professor of law at the University of British Columbia (UBC) from 2009 to 2013, and also served as president of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and as a research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Early political career (2008–2017)

In 2008, Eby sought a Vancouver city council nomination from Vision Vancouver, but was unsuccessful.

In 2011, Eby stood as the NDP candidate in the by-election for Vancouver-Point Grey. The riding had been vacated by former premier Gordon Campbell and was being contested by newly sworn in premier Christy Clark, of the BC Liberal Party, who did not hold a seat in the legislature. Eby placed a close second, only 595 votes behind Clark. Two years later, ahead of the 2013 general election, he again sought the NDP nomination in Vancouver-Point Grey for a rematch against Clark. On election day, Eby defeated Clark in a rare instance of a premier being unseated despite their party winning re-election.

After his election as MLA, Eby was named to the NDP shadow cabinet as critic for advanced education. Eby strongly considered standing in the 2014 British Columbia New Democratic Party leadership election, but declined after learning his then-fiancée was pregnant. He then served as campaign co-chair of John Horgan's successful leadership bid. Later that year, Eby was named the critic for tourism, housing, gaming and liquor policy. As housing critic, he called for an inquiry into Vancouver's real estate market over a practice called "shadow flipping", suggesting it was being done as part of tax avoidance and money laundering. He also uncovered several instances of high-value property being purchased by buyers listed as students and homemakers, and called for an investigation into whether banks were enabling speculation by not verifying income.

In 2016, former NDP premier Glen Clark described Eby as "the future of the NDP".

Attorney General of British Columbia (2017–2022)

Following the 2017 British Columbia election, which saw the NDP form government with the support of the Green Party, Eby was appointed to the cabinet of John Horgan as attorney general. He additionally became minister responsible for liquor, gaming and the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC).

During Eby's tenure, British Columbia passed anti-SLAPP legislation. BC briefly had similar legislation in 2001, enacted by the then-incumbent NDP government that year before being repealed by the subsequent Liberal government. The new law was stronger than the previous version, removing the requirement to prove the person suing had bad intentions and needing only to show that being sued negatively impacted their ability to express an opinions a matter of public interest. Josh Paterson, the executive director of the BC Civil Liberties Association, said the law should be "the model that other provinces should seek to copy."

In 2018, Maclean's described Eby's workload as "handl[ing] every live grenade in BC politics."

On July 19, 2022, Eby stepped down from cabinet in order to stand in the 2022 British Columbia New Democratic Party leadership election.

ICBC reform

On July 24, 2017, Eby released a report by accounting firm Ernst & Young that concluded that ICBC was in a poor financial situation. The report found the problem to lie in "the rising number and size of claims, larger cash settlements for minor injuries, and more claims costs going towards legal representation than to claimants", and that without significant reform, premiums for drivers would have to rise by almost 30% in two years to avoid significant losses. Over the next few months, Eby enacted measures to help tackle the issue, including a 6.4% rate increase, red light cameras at high-collision intersections, and a pilot program to eliminate distracted driving.

In January 2018, ICBC projected a net loss of $1.3 billion by the end of the current fiscal year. The following day, Eby described ICBC as a "financial dumpster fire" due to the "reckless decisions" and negligence of the previous Liberal government. Eby promised "major reforms to make ICBC financially viable again" would be announced shortly, but ruled out a switch to a no-fault insurance system.

In February 2018, the government announced several major changes to accident coverage. Payments for soft-injury claims were capped, medical benefits and wage loss payments were doubled, common treatments became pre-approved, and payouts changed from a lump-sum to a "care-based model" to cover costs on an as-needed basis. ICBC also changed its dispute resolution mechanism to a new civil resolution system to reduce legal costs. The changes were estimated to save $1 billion a year, though Eby did not rule out a future rate increase.

In September 2018, a new method of calculating insurance premiums came into effect that was more heavily weighted towards driving experience and crash history, and overall determined more by driver than vehicle. The change was expected to be revenue neutral, with two-thirds of drivers seeing their rates reduced but the remaining third of riskier drivers paying substantially more.

In February 2019, ICBC reported a net loss of $860 million in the first nine months of the fiscal year. The corporation blamed the loss on the escalating cost of insurance claims, and Eby said that reports from expert witnesses – some files including as much as six medical experts – were driving the costs. Later in February, Eby announced a cap on expert witnesses, to a maximum of three. On October 24, 2019, the Supreme Court of British Columbia struck down the cap, finding it "infringe[d] on the court's core jurisdiction to control its process". The province did not appeal and instead pursued new legislation to limit the number of expert reports while allowing for judicial discretion on whether additional experts are needed.

Investigation into money laundering

Upon being appointed minister, Eby was surprised to discover that the scale of money laundering in the province was much larger than he had believed. He found it "incomprehensible that the previous government had not done more to reduce the risk of money laundering and criminal activity in BC gambling facilities". On September 28, 2017, the government officially launched an investigation into the breadth of money laundering being done in the province's casinos. Eby hired Peter German, a former deputy commissioner of the RCMP and Correctional Service Canada and the author of Canada's leading anti-money-laundering law textbook, to lead the investigation. German's 2018 report found that over $100 million of dirty money had been cleaned in BC due to "a collective system failure".

On May 8, 2019, a report by an expert panel on dirty money found that $7.4 billion was laundered in BC in the previous year, with $5.3 billion going through real estate transactions. A week later, on May 15, the government announced a public inquiry into money laundering, to be headed by BC Supreme Court justice Austin Cullen. The inquiry would look into real estate, gaming, financial institutions and the corporate and professional sectors. On June 14, 2022, Cullen's final report was released. It concluded that the federal anti-money laundering regime was not effective, and that the province needed to develop its own system and tools in order to combat the problem. Cullen said that while it is impossible to come up with an exact figure, he estimated that the amount of money laundered in the province was in the billions. He also found no evidence of corruption among previous gaming ministers, and that they had tried to address the issue but admitted that they could have done more.

Electoral reform

As part of the deal with the Greens, the NDP government committed to holding a referendum on electoral reform. On October 4, 2017, Eby announced that the referendum would be conducted by mail ballot in by the end of November 2018 and would require a simple province-wide majority to be approved. Between November 2017 and February 2018, Eby conducted public consultation on what questions should be on the ballot. On May 30, Eby announced that the ballot would be two questions: the first asking whether to change from the current first-past-the-post (FPTP) system to a proportional representation (PR) system, and the second asking voters to pick between three different models: dual-member proportional, mixed-member proportional and rural-urban proportional. On December 20, 2018, Elections BC announced that 61.3 percent of ballots voted to keep FPTP.

In a post-referendum interview, Eby explained that the two-question ballot was the result of the public consultations, and reflected a lack of consensus on an alternative system. He admitted surprise at how decisive the result was, but did not think any form of PR would have won in a single-ballot referendum, and concluded, "It does not seem to me British Columbians were in favour of changing the system. They seem happy with the system we have."

Housing

After the 2020 election, Eby was given the additional role of minister responsible for housing.

In an interview with the Times Colonist in February 2021, Eby outlined his goal to move everyone living in Victoria's parks into shelter by the end of March, and everyone living in Vancouver's Strathcona Park into shelter by the end of April. While this would require "an array of responses" that included temporary pod-like housing, Eby clarified that permanent housing was the end goal. The government later signed deals with the cities of Victoria and Vancouver to this effect.

As minister, Eby vigorously pushed for more homeless shelters, lobbying municipal governments and politicians to approve zoning plans and permit extensions ahead of their votes. Eby's actions drew criticism from some municipal politicians, such as the mayors of Cranbrook and Penticton, but he defended his approach: "I would be incredibly negligent in not [speaking] to municipal leaders that are voting on vitally important projects to prevent entrenched encampments in their communities."

Eby faced notable conflict with the City of Penticton. On March 2, 2021, Penticton city council voted unanimously to deny a temporary-use permit to BC Housing that the agency needed to continue to run an emergency winter homeless shelter past March 31. Eby called the news "profoundly troubling", and noted that the council had assured him that they would grant the permit. Eby further said it was important to keep the shelter open until the agency built an additional supportive housing unit. Two weeks later, on March 18, Eby announced that the government would be using its power of paramountcy to overrule the council. That July, Penticton officially filed with the BC Supreme Court to challenge the provincial government's use of paramountcy powers.

In 2021, the BC government hired accounting firm Ernst & Young to conduct an independent probe of the BC Housing agency; their report, completed in May 2022, found the agency had inadequate oversight, and that unclear roles and responsibilities potentially impacted its ability to manage risks. Following the public release of the report, Eby dismissed the agency's board of commissioners. In July, he ordered a forensic audit of BC Housing.

Premier of British Columbia (2022–present)

NDP leadership campaign

In his 2022 leadership campaign, Eby advocated multiple solutions to the province's housing crisis. To combat flipping, Eby proposed a tax on the sale of residences that are sold within two years of being purchased.

Eby was endorsed by 48 of his caucus colleagues. On October 20, 2022, Eby won the leadership race by default after the disqualification of Anjali Appadurai, his only challenger. One source from within the party alleged the disqualification was "a pattern that reflected what...is the party’s “pervasive culture of cheating” to boost preferred candidates. He was declared the leader of the BC New Democratic Party and premier-designate of British Columbia on October 21, 2022.

Tenure

Eby was sworn in on November 18, 2022, in a ceremony led by the Musqueam First Nation.

He outlined housing, public safety and health care as his priorities. Immediately after being sworn in, Eby announced two tax credits – a one-time credit for electricity bills and a new BC Affordability Credit for low-to-medium income families – to help deal with affordability concerns. Eby also announced in December 2022 that he would direct ICBC to freeze basic auto insurance rates for two years.

In March 2023, an attempt to recall Eby as MLA over the termination of unvaccinated health care workers failed, with the recall petition falling short of the required number of signatures for a recall election.

Eby led the party into the 2024 provincial election, where the NDP won a third term in government and a second consecutive majority government, but with a net loss of eight seats. Shortly after the election, a confidence and supply agreement with the BC Greens was announced to ensure stability despite the narrow majority. In February 2026, the BC Greens decided not to renew the agreement.

In November 2025, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith reached a deal with Prime Minister Mark Carney to build an oil pipeline from Alberta to the British Columbia Coast. This proposal is opposed by Eby and most local First Nations, with Eby criticizing Carney for a lack of consultation.

Following the 2026 Tumbler Ridge shooting, his government's throne speech was cancelled and replaced with tributes to the victims.

In 2019, Horgan's NDP government passed DRIPA, or the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, with the province becoming the first in Canada to bring legislation in line with the United Nations' Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). After First Nations' groups cited it in two landmark court cases in 2025, including one that said the act should be incorporated into existing BC laws, the opposition Conservatives and other private property rights groups began calling for the legislation's repeal. In 2026, Eby stated that he was proposing to suspend the act "for up to three years," which was criticized by Indigenous leaders.

Personal life

His wife, Cailey Lynch, was a registered nurse, and later studied medicine at UBC and is now a family doctor. They have three children. Eby has been a vegetarian since he was 14 after reading Diet for a New America.