David Eby

David Robert Patrick Eby (born July 21, 1976) is a Canadian politician and lawyer who has been serving as the 37th and current premier of British Columbia since November 18, 2022, and has been serving as the leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party (NDP) since October 21, 2022.

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 4 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.

BC briefly had similar legislation in 2001, enacted by the then-incumbent NDP government that year before being repealed by the subsequent Liberal government.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 2004, he graduated from Schulich School of Law in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

He articled for the federal Department of Justice 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.

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

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.

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.

A member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Eby has represented the riding of Vancouver-Point Grey since 2013.

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 became 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.

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

From 2017 to 2022, he served in the John Horgan cabinet as attorney general.

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.

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 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.

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.