Well, what's the most important thing to understand about this poll? Is the conservative lead meaningful or is this just, I guess, officially saying this is going to be a competitive race?

I think both can be true.

It is still a competitive race when you're separated by five points.

That's the kind of gap that can be made up over the course of a campaign.

Although, of course, we are now entering into the second week.

We are not in the second full week of campaign.

campaigning, we are getting close to polling day.

What do you make of the Conservatives pivot in this manner? And what do you make of Lauren Dirksen as a candidate?

So why did he call it?

It's a good question.

The answer that the NDP gives is that there needs to be a clear demonstration that there is no place for American-style MAGA politics in BC.

That's basically the story that the Premier gave.

But there is a problem with that explanation in that They were already in charge.

And by calling the election, you effectively open the door to a B.C. Conservative Party, which if you think it really is embedded within this MAGA style of world.

And it's clear that some members of that movement are.

Greens, of course.

So based on recent Canadian experience, where do you expect the biggest, maybe political friction to emerge as Ottawa tries to deliver on some of their promises?

As long as the prime minister continues to have broad public support, some of those speed bumps are going to be a little lower than they would be otherwise.

It's a It's a dynamic environment.

So we have seen that in previous experiences around things like building a second pipeline to the coast, where normally we would expect to have a lot of premier level debate between BC's premier, Alberta's premier, and the prime minister over a project going to to the BC coast.

But in the event, the Prime Minister seemed to effectively be able to stare down the British Columbia's Premier David Eby and say, if you're coming here with solutions, we'll listen to you.

If you're coming here with problems, you're outside the room.

And that worked effectively once BC started to talk about, well, we could perhaps look at a southern line going through the lower mainland.

Is this a delicate dance for Mark Carney on the West Coast in particular, just because of realistically how different this province in British Columbia could look even in a couple of months' time?

Yeah

... uh, of implementation of those projects.

So very big on investing, uh, in the resource sector.

Uh, here in BC where I am, it's the classic sort of, uh, uh, free market, uh, coalition conservatism where you're investing in all the resource projects you can get your hands on.

And of course, uh, governments to, to the center and the left do that as well, but it's a real, uh, hallmark of, uh, of a conservative governments to, to put that at the forefront and, and really, uh, do, do whatever they can to, to push forward projects as opposed to, uh, uh, regulate projects, ensuring that they, they meet environmental standards.

Uh, Mr. Carney seems to be quite comfortable with changing the standards when he needs to in order to get those projects through, which is a different tone.

And, and then beyond that, it really is, uh, uh, the way in which he, uh, uses the tools of, of government.

Like, y- y- there's a pretty clear indication of what his intention and his plan is for these kind of projects with that pipeline.

Why is, why are we still feeling the repercussions from it?

Well, I think, uh, none of us likes to think about the, the pandemic.

Uh, w- We'll put it all behind us, but, but we really can't do that when we think about its effects, its systemic effects on, on things like the, the BC healthcare system, where it wasn't just that, uh, that there were people who needed medical care at the time.

It was the, the level of care needed, the, uh, the, the pace, uh, of, of that care, uh, needed for, for British Columbians in, in, uh, particular communities at different times would burn out, uh, a significant portion of, of the workforce requiring the replacement of, of existing healthcare workers, nurses in particular, uh, but also doctors and, and other necessary, uh, care providers at the same time as we are looking to, to build out the capacity to, to, to meet the needs of, of British Columbians.

And so you're having to, to replace at the same time as, as expand.

And so that's, uh, uh, if you like, a double whammy.

And, and so the government has been looking to, to build out the capacity to train healthcare workers.

Do you think, though, that this is successive governments who ignored it?

I mean, uh, i-is this something you th-you think is just specific to Vancouver, or do you think this-- we've seen this with other municipal governments as well?

No, I think this is a story we, we see i-in municipal governments from time to time, and, and we have seen at other levels of government as well.

The sense that, uh, for, for political reasons, sometimes for, for macroeconomic reasons, there really is a budget crunch, uh, in, uh, i-in the, in the works that, that can't be avoided.

But this is, this is more of a political choice, but a move to, to in the short term cut, uh, ex-spending in, in government to try to, to present the, a, a kind of, uh, a hold the line budget to, to voters.

But i-in doing so, you, you have to, uh, halt spending or even roll back spending on all kinds of, of services that are preventing future spending, if you like.

And so when I, I looked at, uh, sustainability, uh, services and environmental services, uh, because they really exist to try to find efficiencies for, for government.

They do a range of things, but that's one of the primary roles is to, to outline ways in which government can, uh, municipal government can save money spending less on, on energy consumption and finding more efficient ways to do things.

But what's the problem with cutting some of those other issues that, uh, things that may not be, uh, part of core services is when one would argue responsibility maybe even the provincial or federal governments?