Fourth BC NDP Cabinet Minister Says Not Seeking Reelection

B.C. Jobs and Economic Growth Minister Brenda Bailey has announced she will not seek re-election, becoming the fourth B.C. NDP cabinet minister to opt out of the race, as party Leader David Eby called a snap election Sept. 22.

Bailey, who was diagnosed with cancer earlier this summer, said she is now “cancer-free” but that the experience has caused her to focus on family and recovery instead of running in the election. She noted that she will still campaign on behalf of the B.C. NDP in the lead-up to the Oct. 24 election.

“I want to thank David Eby for giving me the opportunity to serve the people of BC. I am grateful for everything I have learned and for the extraordinary people I have met along the way,” Bailey wrote in a statement posted on social media Sept. 23.

In addition to Bailey, Minister of Agriculture and Food Lana Popham said Sept. 21 that she won’t be running for reelection after serving 17 years as an MLA.

More recently, B.C. Minister of Health Ravi Kahlon said he won’t seek reelection in a Sept. 22 statement shortly after Eby called the election, as did Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Kelly Greene, who listed her ongoing concerns about the B.C. NDP-supported expansion of the Tilbury LNG facility near her riding of Richmond-Steveston.

Bailey has served in the B.C. legislature since being elected in the fall 2020 election and was appointed finance minister following the 2024 provincial election, tabling B.C.’s 2025 and 2026 budgets.

She was moved to head Jobs and Economic Growth in an Aug. 14 cabinet shuffle, shortly after having announced her cancer diagnosis.

Election

Eby called a snap election less than two years after having formed a provincial NDP government and while holding a one-seat majority in the legislature.

The NDP leader said he wants a strong mandate to respond to American tariffs and U.S. President Donald Trump, and stated that British Columbians deserve to vote on whether they want the “MAGA-style politics” that he charged is being offered by the BC Conservatives.

“This moment that we are in, with new threats every day, with escalating threats and actions from the United States, requires a choice from British Columbians about how we respond,” Eby said in his Sept. 22 announcement in Victoria.

The BC Conservatives have been headed by interim leader Lorne Doerkson since former Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay stepped down on Sept. 20, and have seen a number of those who left or were removed from the party return since Doerkson took the helm.

Doerkson has said Eby is trying to take advantage of internal divisions in the B.C. Tories, calling it a “cynical snap election” during a Sept. 22 press conference following Eby’s announcement, adding that Eby will “regret” the deicsion.

“The challenge in this province right now is 10 years of disastrous mismanagement by the NDP government, and it has affected British Columbians in ways that I’ve never seen,” Doerkson said.

Polling shows B.C. voters are especially focused on issues around affordability, housing, and healthcare, while the BC Conservatives have also said they will prioritize the repealing of B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, which they say threatens private property certainty in the province.

A Liaison Strategies poll published Sept. 23 and conducted the day before and the day of Eby’s election announcement, found the B.C. NDP at 41 percent compared to the BC Conservatives at 36 percent among decided and leaning voters.