 Well, good morning. Good afternoon, everyone. It is with some enthusiasm and some sorrow that I stand before you today to offer my full support to the last remaining candidate in the BCNDP leadership race, my colleague and friend David Ebe. This has been a difficult road for everyone, some challenges along the way to be sure, but I am confident that the work of the table officers and the executive of the BCNDP have been thorough, have been exhaustive. And Elizabeth Cull, who has been a member of the BCNDP for decades, took her job very seriously and came to the conclusions that you're all aware of. Those were presented to the Apedora Campaign. They were an attempt to rebut that. There was an appeal that was delivered. It was rejected. The executive made a decision last night. An executive that's led by an indigenous man, a lawyer, a former chief, Aaron Schumahetze. 80% of the executives are women. Almost 50% are people of color. So this is not about back rooms from the 1960s. This is about contemporary British Columbians making decisions in the best interest of the province. I'm proud of the work they did, and I'm proud that David Ebe will be the next Premier of British Columbia. For anybody that has questions in the room, please make your way over. First question today is Richard Zussman, Global News. David Ebe will become the province's premier without having to go through a full leadership race. He will have not presented a platform. He will largely not have any mandate from either the members or from the province itself. Should British Columbians be comfortable with someone in that position becoming the premier of the province? David has been one of the hardest working members of my cabinet. He was, when I was the leader of the opposition, the hardest working critic on behalf of the official opposition. Every file that I have given him, large files, sometimes multiple files, have been handled delicately and handled with success. The success we had in bringing down costs at ICBC are direct result of the work of David Ebe. Exposing the corruption and the money laundering that was so rampant in British Columbia before our government came to power was a direct result of the work of David Ebe. We worked together to transform election finance laws to make sure that the money people could not buy elections, to make sure that rules would be followed, to make sure that everyone had an equal opportunity. And I'm very proud of David. It was never about a new mandate. It was about continuing the mandate. We were given by the people of British Columbia just two years ago. And were it not for my personal health situation, I would have been happy to carry on. I made it clear that I'm not able to do that. And I am absolutely delighted that David has emerged not with just the support of me, but the entire caucus and I would argue the overwhelming majority of new Democrat members who were members because of the values that have been implanted in them over not just a few weeks, but over quite frankly, generations. The BCNDP grew out of the CCF, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation. Vaughn was covering politics when they were around. And so I'm confident that David will take that tradition, that fine honorable tradition and carry it forward as Premier. There are a group of members in your party who now feel disenfranchised. They feel they don't have a vote. They feel this is a non-democratic process. They may or may not have known that rules were broken when signing up to become a member. Have these people lost their voices here? And are you worried about losing the environmental activist wing of this party, either to leave politics or to go somewhere else? Not at all. In fact, one of the strengths of my government has been a continent leading climate action plan. I was just meeting with the governors of Washington, Oregon and California. And the three of them universally praised the work we've been able to do here in British Columbia, building on previous governments to lead the continent in bringing forward initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to address climate change. So I'm not at all concerned about that. And with respect to being disenfranchised, members are members. There is no vote because one of the campaigns didn't follow the rules and was disqualified as a result of that. Next question. Katie Derosa, Vancouver Sun. Premier, originally when before Anjali submitted her candidacy, David E.B. was said was obviously the only challenger. There was talk of a acclamation being better for the party just as you were acclaimed. And so the party's not fighting within itself. Now, is it a situation where the party is sort of torn itself through this NDP leadership drama? And does that affect the liberals' position before the next election? Well, first of all, I know that there are people who have been around here a while that have followed these types of races in the past, leadership races here in BC and across the continent. And I think of Patrick Brown, most recently a conservative candidate who was disqualified from his race at the federal level. I think of Aaron Gunn, who I knew who played hockey with my son in Wanda Fuca. He was eliminated by the BC liberals. These things happen. Sometimes campaigns are not following rules and therefore they're disqualified. This has become a much more public affair and I'm fine with that. And I'm sure that the Apodora campaign is fine with that because it strikes me that that was their objective from the beginning. You have a meeting later today with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Can you talk about what will be on the agenda? Well, I'm going to continue to make the case that the federal government needs to get in the game when it comes to addressing the challenges in public health care. I've still in contact with my colleagues across the country. I know Doug Ford who has been standing shoulder to shoulder quite famously with the Prime Minister on other issues is as concerned as I am as is Francois Legault as are the Prairie premiers and premiers from Atlantic Canada. We need the federal government to get in the game. There is a ministers meeting next week or early November in Vancouver and that's a good start and I'll be talking to Prime Minister about that. I'll also be talking about the unanimity with respect to street disorder and the challenges that prosecutors face as a result of federal policies, federal rulings and determinations by the Supreme Court and how important it is that the national government get their head around this. I know the Prime Minister is aware of that. I know his ministers are Minister Rankin and Minister Farnworth were both with their colleagues in Halifax just a week ago and the federal government was there as well. So those are issues that I'm going to be talking with them about today and also just bidding them a farewell as I suspect this is the last time we'll be meeting face to face. Next question. Rob Shaw, check news. A pat or I is planning to be outside the front steps to the building at two with supporters. What would you say to her? Well, her, her coral is not with this building. It's not with these people that work here. It is with her campaign that violated the rules that were clearly set out before she entered the race. Her issue is with the executive of the BCNDP. Her, she made her case to the table officers in an appeal. It was rejected. The table officers passed on their recommendations to the executive. The executive agreed and miss Apadurai's campaign is disqualified. Her issue was not with this building. She may find a more receptive audience here with you. Then she would have going to the head office. But again, that's for her to determine not me. The idea though that a young, bright, intelligent, articulate David Ibi. Yeah, well, younger than you. Younger than Ibi. I guess maybe everyone's younger than me, Rob, except one guy here. But the idea that someone who might be the next generation of new Democrats in the past trying to change the world, taking a big swing at a big problem doesn't see themselves reflected in this party and doesn't and doesn't want to make the compromises that you've had to make in government on files. What would you say to though that generation to the new Democrats? Well, I apologize for interrupting your question. But as I understand it, Rob, the point you're making is here's a young activist who wants to make an impact. Full marks to her for that. She can continue to do that work that she was doing prior to her and the Dogwood Initiative starting her campaign. She can continue to do that work. Her enthusiasm, her vigor is welcomed within the NDP. But you have to follow the rules in a leadership contest. You have to understand that we amended election finance rules. We amended how we engage not just in regular elections, municipal provincial, but also in leadership campaigns. We have a young, dynamic, diverse caucus and she would be, I would suggest a welcome addition to that. But at this point, we have 57 members who range in age from mid 30s to early 70s. And that range of experience more women than men, more people of color than have ever been elected to this legislature. We are increasingly representing the diversity of British Columbia and our executive absolutely represents that diversity of young people who were grappling with a very, very difficult situation not of their making, but they discharge their responsibilities. I would suggest honorably and in good faith. And I'm proud of what they did and I'm proud of where this government has come and even prouder of where David will take it. Next question. Alex Lasmby, BC Today. Hi, Premier. So in the call reports and that in the call reported backed up claims that, you know, certain members of the Green Party were holding dual certain people were holding dual green NDP memberships prompting Heather Stoutenberg to call it a hostile takeover by that party. And also further saying that, you know, the Greens could be putting their official party status at risk. What are your thoughts on that sort of terminology and on that process? Well, certainly Heather can speak for herself. She is the executive director of the party of the provincial director. I can tell you that in my constituency the candidate for the Green Party's family are now members of the NDP. This is a recent occurrence. They never joined when I was seeking their assistance. In fact, instead of assisting me, they mobilized and ran against me. So I have real tangible evidence if you will in my own community of individuals who were never supportive of me or the initiatives that I've been championing over 18 years. And I think that does a disservice to the members like Bill Wilson who has been fighting elections since the 1950s and to see all of that hard work taken away by a list that was designed by getting clicks on the internet is not, in my opinion, how we should proceed. And that was the conclusion in short form. That was the conclusion of the executive and I support that. And in question period today, Sonya first now called out the government for a lack of transparency and also for breaking promises that they made in 2017 around, you know, party collaboration and across the aisle getting stuff done. What are your thoughts on those comments and what would you say to Sonya in response? Well, I can tell you that Andrew Weaver and I collaborated together to bring forward the strongest climate action plan in the continent. We collaborated on a range of other issues during our time of the conference and supply agreement. We put in place an all party committee to look at the police act because these are not partisan questions. We need to make sure everyone is talking about public safety street disorder and how we can support law enforcement, how we can make sure we're putting in place the programs and the people to protect citizens across this great province. We just again struck the health committee to address the opioid crisis at the urging of the Liberals and the Greens. So I would suggest that Ms. Versano is being selective. If I don't agree with her on a given day, I'm not collaborative. If I agree with her on five days, then that's just an ordinary business. I can't speak for her. I'm not even going to pretend to try. Next question. Leslie in times colonists. Well, thank you. David, he's been immersed in government issues for the last five years. As you pointed out earlier, do you think he's got what it takes to concentrate on the party and the party membership and heal some of the obvious bad feelings that are percolating right now? Well, again, I would suggest first of all that some of those bad feelings are from people like the family of the Green Party candidate who ran against me and I feel empathy for them as human beings but I'd have to suggest that their their indignation is feigned and they're trying to accomplish by stealth what they couldn't accomplish at the ballot box in the last election campaign. So in that sense, I'll leave that to rest but your question is a good one less and and one of the challenges of being leader of a political party and I'm sure Mr. Falcon would agree is it's not just the work of the legislature it's not just the work in communities. It's also the strength and vitality of the political party that you represent and I am been very proud to represent the NDP as leader for the past eight years and I am confident that David has all the tools he needs and all the support quite frankly that he will need to to take on that enormous task but it's is it easy? Not at all is it rewarding? Absolutely. I noticed last night in this morning there's a number I don't know how many a number of NDP members regardless of how they would have voted on this thing they wanted a vote and they don't think this looks very good for the party to disqualify a candidate. If you back up and look at this thing did this leadership this aborted contest go about as badly as you might have expected at the outset or was it worse? Why are you so awesome Les? No look this isn't how anybody wanted this to roll but I think it's a cautionary tale for all of us most British Columbians near five million souls are getting on with their lives and they're worried about affordability about housing about healthcare they're not worried about someone's hurt feelings that they circumvented the rules and were called out on it this will pass is it disappointing? For sure. But I've always been about talking about the things that matter to my neighbors to British Columbians and what matters to them is we have been transparent we had a process we had a chief electoral officer of quite profound renowned within the NDP to manage this process document was produced an exhaustive document was produced and you now have it in your possession I don't know what would be not transparent about that the rules were clear at the outset of the race that if there were reasons for disqualification they would be identified they would be reviewed there would be opportunity for appeal and then the provincial executive would make a final determination I am a member of the executive I am a table officer I did not participate in the discussions last night I observed the table officers receiving of Ms. Kull's report I think it was a week ago I'm not sure I lost track of time but recently but again not I have voice but I didn't exercise my voice beyond saying how proud I had been how proud I have been of this job the absolute thrill of my life to have this opportunity to stand before all of you and sweat under these hot lights so no I'm ready to go and I'm very very very pleased that David E.B. is going to be the next Premier of British Columbia because I'm a British Columbian and I want a competent competent compassionate leader and he fits that bill we only have time for a couple of more quick questions Andrew McLeod Tahit Thank you you've been talking to transparency and the role of the provincial executive why isn't the list of who's on the executive public why? because they're being inundated by people who say this is this is by we want to take over your party leave them alone they're doing their job volunteers and they're going to be abused by a bunch of people who cheated and want to get away with it sorry Andrew you can write that up anyway you want I believe that these individuals young men and women diverse men and women from across BC elected at our last convention to these positions should not then be ridiculed and abused by people who only joined the party because they got an email from someone that doesn't even belong to the NDP I just I can't be more frustrated by that type of thuggery so no I'm not going to publish their names but I'm sure that some will be delighted to have them but given their role I mean this is I mean I'm not even sure exactly how many people but they were they just let me go back let me go back they were elected at our last convention if you've been paying attention you would have been able to identify who they are they're on I'm sure you can find their names on the website if you want other addresses and phone numbers and emails you're going to have to do something else not talk to me I think I'm done here thanks very much everybody thanks everyone I'll see you around