Eby made the provincial election call in proximity to an environmental green-light for a potential $3.5 billion investment in FortisBC's Tilbury LNG expansion, but there's still a question about how much credit the NDP will get on the economy

Premier David Eby is signalling that B.C.’s industrial potential, with new mines, mine expansions and energy projects in the wings, will factor heavily in his party’s election platform. But polling suggests that economic issues will be a weak point for his party in the campaign.

Eby rolled out “Build B.C. Strong” as a key slogan on Tuesday as he announced a snap election, pointing to pending investment decisions on projects worth $100 billion as examples of how his government is trying to diversify the economy.

“We need to build a firebreak,” he said, referring to a conflict against U.S. President Donald Trump’s “economic attack,” but also a break from “our dependence on the United States.”

Polling, however, indicates Eby needs to win much of the electorate back on economic issues, according to pollster Shachi Kurl, who said there are many British Columbians who “are souring on the NDP and on the Eby government” over “real or perceived” economic problems.

Kurl, who is president of the Angus Reid Institute, said the group’s polling has shown that 50 per cent of British Columbians want change in government, although the other half of respondents to surveys also said they felt orphaned, before the re-consolidation of the B.C. Conservative party.

She added that Trump does take some blame for B.C.’s problems, but the province is also experiencing downgrades to its credit rating and signals from Bay Street that debt markets are concerned about the province’s finances, and the government hasn’t acted to turn it around.

“B.C. is in a bad place economically right now,” Kurl said. “And definitely Eby and the NDP are wearing some of that, wearing the perception of that and the reality of it.”

In that context, Kurl said opposition parties can still say, “Look at what four years of Eby government have brought us.”

Major projects and resource development should still be considered “front-foot” issues for Eby, according to former B.C. NDP cabinet minister-turned-political strategist Nathan Cullen.

Cullen, vice-president of the public affairs firm Strategy Corp., believes there is political leverage to be gained from billion-dollar mine projects on Eby’s priority list that have gone ahead, and decisions on energy projects waiting in the wings.

“You can’t say the province is a basket-case and First Nations are out of control and it’s ruining everything if people are putting their money, hard-earned money, on the line,” Cullen said. “They don’t do that when things are bad.”

Eby made the election call on the heels of Victoria and Ottawa granting an environmental green light for FortisBC’s $3.5 billion Tilbury liquefied natural gas expansion, which has the prospect of creating more than 1,000 jobs in the Lower Mainland during its construction and add $1.7 billion to B.C.’s gross domestic product.

Adrian Dix, speaking as energy minister in a statement released before Eby’s trip to Government House in Victoria, hyped the project, that if FortisBC makes a positive decision to go ahead, it will have “the potential to deliver significant economic and environmental benefits for B.C., and jobs for British Columbians.”

In the statement, Dix pointed to the Tilbury expansion as an example of the NDP government’s “Look West” strategy for “jobs and prosperity.”

At Tuesday’s election announcement, Eby argued that major projects his government has supported have had an impact and contain potential. He said a positive decision for LNG Canada’s Phase 2 expansion in Kitimat would be worth $28 billion to B.C.’s treasury over its lifetime.

“That is money that we don’t have to go to British Columbians to ask for in taxes for health care and education,” Eby said.

Besides the B.C. projects already forwarded to the federal Major Projects Office, Cullen said federal ministers “are more keen than ever” to put more on the list, based on conversations he’s had. It is still an open question as to what they might be.

However, major projects might not gain a lot of ground for Eby with urban voters, according to political scientist Hamish Telford.

“Those sorts of big projects tend to be very remote and far removed from the lives of most British Columbians,” said Telford, an associate professor at University of the Fraser Valley.

“People say, ‘Yeah, that’s good, but it’s like how does that help me pay rent?’ is what it comes back to for most people,” Telford said. “I think people will want to hear some things that are much more tangible to their everyday lives.”

Telford said he was surprised that Eby didn’t have “a big announcement, a big promise” that would be “tangible for voters,” on Tuesday.