David Eby Before and After: How David Eby’s former criticisms of the political influence of the so-called ‘Condo King’ of Vancouver Bob Rennie, when Eby was a member of the opposition; turned once in power, to Eby becoming Rennie’s political follower.

By Sasha Izard

Sept 29, 2025

On October 3, 2025 David Eby as he has before, will make his almost annual pilgrimage, to pay obeisance to his political master Bob Rennie, the so-called “Condo King” at the UDI’s equivalent of Woland’s Ball, this year held at the Hyatt Regency Ballroom in Vancouver.

As at similar events in the past, government employees and public officials will likely be lined up to watch like pigs at the trough, at $150-$300 a pop of taxpayer money per person to attend the lobby’s luncheon, like it was a Christy Clark Liberal fundraising dinner in reverse, or a mass gathering of a cult in Denver Colorado. This is the logical endpoint of the BC NDP, a party so sold out to corporate interests that even their minions have no shame left to lose.

How did it get to this?

When the BC NDP were an opposition party, David Eby castigated the BC Liberal Party and its leader at the time Christy Clark for being far too much under the influence of Bob Rennie on housing policy.

Various articles from the time (see reference section at the end) quoted Eby’s many critiques of Rennie’s influence over the Liberal Party.

A video from the BC NDP Caucus uploaded to Youtube in March of 2017 shows Eby in the BC Legislature, lambasting the party for taking its direction on housing from Rennie.

David Eby tells Premier to set record straight on Bob Rennie’s influence on real estate policy

The transcription of the video, can be read in Appendix 2. at the end of this article.

Above: While a member of the opposition, MLA David Eby castigated Christy Clark and the BC Liberal Party for being under heavy political influence from Bob Rennie, in regard to housing policy.

Yet something else was taking place: as Eby and his party criticized the all too cozy relationship between the BC Liberal Party and Rennie, they were on the verge of a power shift. After a poor showing in the 2017 election, Christy Clark’s BC Liberal government fell. The NDP-Green coalition that followed it, eliminated corporate donations from Provincial Elections.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars of corporate donations to the Liberal Party over the years from Rennie Market Systems Ltd., ended overnight.

FRPC

However, Rennie was not in trouble. At the very least, there would be a cost savings. His overwhelming political influence, was as present as ever, potentially even more so than before.

Just as rapidly as the NDP took power, Eby’s criticism of Rennie’s political influence, disappeared. Several years later, Eby’s tune of criticism over Bob Rennie’s astounding political influence had taken a complete 180° turn. Now Eby, not Clark – was asking the Condo King how to solve the ‘housing crisis’.

After several years of the NDP in power, Eby would begin taking policy direction openly from Bob Rennie at events of the Urban Development Institute (UDI), a registered lobbying organization for corporate real estate and development interests.

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A signalling shift.

Follow the money trail:

In 2009, Rennie Market Systems LTD donated to the BC NDP, a token amount, $300. Although the amount was negligible, certainly in the face of many thousands of corporate donations from the company to the BC Liberal Party, this small donation could well be seen as a sort of political signal, in addition to a political hedge. The folks at Rennie can’t have missed that the fortune of the BC Liberal party at the first decade the 2^nd millennium, could not last forever.

During the runup to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the BC NDP cried foul that the money the Campbell government was spending on the Olympics wasn’t going instead to build more desperately needed housing, the beginning perhaps of the NDP’s shock-doctrinesque “housing crisis” narrative, that would place a market-supply development industry agenda unfocused on affordability, at the forefront of public policy under the BC NDP.

In 2011, the Urban Development Institute (UDI), a registered non-profit/lobbying organization representing the development industry and real estate, that claims to be politically non-partisan, donated $3000 directly to the BC NDP, the only party there are records of it donating to, on Elections BC’s provincial political campaign contributions search website.

https://contributions.electionsbc.gov.bc.ca/pcs/SA1ASearchResults.aspx?Contributor=urban+development+institute&PartySK=0&Party=(ALL)&ClassSK=0&ClassificationName=(ALL)&DateTo=&DateFrom=&Contr_TYpe=0&Contr_TYpe_Desc=(ALL)

Since the BC NDP took power, first by coalition in 2017, and by full majority several years later, the name Rennie disappeared from BC Liberal Party donations.

The video uploaded by the BC NDP Caucus in March of 2017, showing Eby lambasting Christy Clark and the BC Liberal Party for being beholden to Bob Rennie on housing policy, was followed two months later by the provincial election of May 9, 2017 and the toppling of Christy Clark’s razor-thin attempt at forming a minority government – by the BC NDP and the Greens agreeing to form a coalition government, as combined they held a plurality of seats in the BC Legislature.

B.C. NDP and Green Party reach agreement to end 16 years of Liberal rule | UFCW Canada – Canada’s Private Sector Union

B.C. Green Party agrees to support NDP in the legislature | CBC News

Soon after the agreement, as summer turned to fall in 2017, the Urban Development Institute, the so-called non-partisan, non-profit representing development industry and real estate interests, made 2 direct donations ($350 each) to the BC NDP. Not a lot of money, but another signal perhaps?

In 2018, the NDP at the behest of the Greens as part of the deal, reluctantly put forward a referendum on proportional representation.

2018 British Columbia electoral reform referendum – Wikipedia

The UDI ostensibly non-partisan, opposed proportional representation.

BC’s Most Powerful Real Estate Lobbyists are Trying to Stop Electoral Reform
An Open Letter to the Urban Development Institute – Fair Vote Canada

The NDP put forward ballot questions on the referendum that observers noted after, were incredibly convoluted, making it almost certain that proportional representation at the ballot box was bound to fail in 2018, as it did.

With a referendum on proportional representation out of the way and publicly rejected; a couple years later, the NDP broke the Confidence and Supply Agreement that they had with the BC Greens by holding a provincial election a year early, in 2020.

Microsoft Word – BC Green-BC NDP Agreement_vf May 29th 2017.docx

Flush with public support during the pandemic, as the provincial government’s updates about it were broadcasted practically every night on television, with a considerable captive audience of isolating members of the public watching regularly; the BC NDP were able to gain their greatest supermajority in the Legislature in BC history.

Yet, after less than 2 years, with the costly Royal BC Museum redevelopment fiasco in the news and the Premier’s approval ratings steadily dipping and for the first time falling below 50%, Horgan backed down on the redevelopment of the RBCM site in downtown Victoria, and then soon after on June 28, 2022 John Horgan citing serious health issues, announced that he would be stepping down from his position as Premier. John Horgan was replaced as Premier by David Eby in November of 2022, after the BC NDP party elite selected him as the new party leader after disqualifying on dubious grounds, his only challenger to the position: Anjali Appadurai.

In June of 2022, Bob Rennie donated $1300 to the former critics of his political influence, the BC NDP. Again, this was not a lot of money for a man with as deep pockets as Mr. Rennie, but keep in mind that there were now serious restrictions on political campaign donations.

A year earlier in June of 2021, when Eby was simultaneously the Attorney General and Housing Minister, he gave his first public interview with Mr. Rennie, which was webcasted due to the pandemic, through an Urban Development Institute event.

Since I exposed this event in a CRD Watch article, the video of it was pulled down from public view by the UDI, but not before I backed it up..

The video has now been reposted by CityHallWatch MetroVanWatch on Youtube at the following link:

UDI David Eby Bob Rennie luncheon 16 Jun 2021

The following is a record obtained from Freedom of Information showing the cost to the taxpayer of a single government employee of a government entity that is a paying member of the development industry and real estate lobby, attending the event; in this case the government employee was from the Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia (a paying UDI member organization).

The Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia (LTSA) is a paying member of a registered lobbying organization for real estate and development. – CRD Watch Homepage

Excerpted image from the UDI’s Policy and Advocacy updates newsletter July 13, 2021.

“They may come from different sides of the political spectrum but you’ll be surprised at how much they agree.”

David Eby before and after:

Before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbYJxMsrPGs (While in opposition): “David Eby tells Premier to set record straight on Bob Rennie’s influence on real estate policy”

At 3:15 in the video, Eby criticizes the Liberal Housing Minister for exchanging multiple emails with Rennie and engaging in dialogue with him on Real Estate)

After:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=511JXFHh8oA While Housing Minister, Eby sought Bob Rennie’s advice to solve the so-called housing crisis in a lengthy interview facilitated by the UDI lobby. Note: The Youtube link, while previously available to the public, has since been made private. Don’t worry, someone backed-up a copy of the video first.

Rennie, the so-called ‘Condo-King’s advice to Eby? A super abundance of over-supply when it comes to housing.

Above image from the UDI’s Annual Report 2022-2023
From left to right: David Eby, stands next to Bob Rennie and Anne McMullin President and CEO of the UDI, and the UDI’s Chair at the time Jon Stovell

Several weeks before Eby’s first UDI interview with the Condo King, Eby was a featured speaker at the UDI Capital Region.

The following was quoted from the UDI Capital Region’s website prior to the UDI pulling the website down, as the Housing Bills were being pushed through the BC Legislature in late November of 2023:

“On May 26th, 2021, we welcomed Minister David Eby, Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Housing, to the UDI to speak to the ways in which the province will be supporting municipalities in reaching their housing needs, as well as what plans the province has laid out in order to fulfill the proposed goal of 114,000 units by 2028.

This was the final session in our three-part webinar series addressing Housing Needs Reports in the Capital Region.

This webinar was generously sponsored by The Condo Group”

The following is quoted from an April 18, 2022 article ”City of Victoria eliminates rezoning and public hearings for affordable housing” by Kenneth Chan (the text was bolded by myself.):

“In an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized last month, David Eby, BC Attorney General and Minister responsible for Housing, said he will reform the municipal approval process for housing construction later this fall — to clear red tape that prevents some much-needed new condos, apartments, and townhomes from being built for years.”

The following year in 2022, only months before being declared Premier, Eby this time sat down in-person for a UDI interview with the ‘Condo King’ Bob Rennie. The UDI and Eby were advancing so-called missing middle housing, which although it does not address affordability, increases possibilities for increasing market-based housing supply. So-called missing middle housing, became a key election issue in the General Local Government Elections held several months after.

Above: A 2022 Facebook post by Adam Cooper, while he was the Chair of the UDI Capital Region. Under the image of Eby, Cooper’s text mentions that Eby was encouraging Stephen Andrews to support ‘missing middle housing’ (something the UDI had been lobbying to government at the provincial and local/regional level of government). Cooper’s text though appears potentially inaccurate. The person Eby was discussing with is not Stephen Andrews. It appears to be Bob Rennie. Stephen Andrews was a councillor in the City of Victoria. Missing Middle Housing Initiative (MMHI) was coming up for a vote at the time. Andrews was running for the position of mayor in the city, although he was not elected in the general local government election of October 2022. MMHI was passed in the City of Victoria soon after the election

The UDI Capital Region’s Chair at the time wrote in the comment that can be seen at bottom left: “yup thank goodness we have everyone in our pockets!”

Below is social media screenshot in 2022, where Cooper wrote: “no one has ever said that MMHI is intended to deliver affordable housing”.

Zoomed:

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A similar UDI event was held the following year in 2023, featuring Housing Minister at the time Ravi Kahlon, at the Hyatt Regency Ballroom in Vancouver. It was attended by numerous government employees utilizing public funds for their tickets. The following record is from a Freedom of Information response that I received from the Land Title and Survey Authority (LTSA). I’ve generously blanked out the names of the employees, but I’m really not sure why.

A similar UDI event featuring Ravi Kahlon, took place the following year in early 2024:

“Sold out” event… – CRD Watch Homepage

The 2024 event was described by the UDI, as the Minister of Housing’s “annual address with UDI”.

“Minister Kahlon will be taking the stage in this intimate fireside conversation to discuss recent legislative changed introduced in Fall 2023, the Ministry’s potential future plans that will be introduced, as well as the engagement between Provincial and Federal Governments.”

The event was sponsored by paying UDI lobby member, the Crown Corporation BC Housing.

BC Housing has also given the UDI a $10,000 annual sponsorship.

As Eby and Rennie’s bromance flourished, and the Housing Ministers frequented UDI events, the UDI plied Eby and Kahlon with Valentines Day-type gifts, such as wine and boxes of chocolate.

Urban Development Institute / Anne McMullin, President & CEO – 12-Month Lobbying Summary – Lobbyists Registry – Office of the Registrar or Lobbying of BC

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A slew of lobbying:

In 2021 and 2022, Eby and his Ministry of Housing received a barrage of lobbying toward a series of radical goals by the UDI to vastly increase the supply of housing units across British Columbia. I have documented this extensively. This barrage of lobbying continued when Ravi Kahlon was at the helm of the Ministry, and no doubt continues to this day.

What came out of this barrage of lobbying, was that the Ministry of Housing and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs (the two were merged recently), adopted much of the UDI’s lobbied-for content in the creation of the infamous Housing Bills put forward in 2023 most notably Bills 44 and 47 both of which blanket upzoned much of the province eliminating vast swathes of public hearings across the province in the process. The UDI’s influence was profoundly visible in the creation of other Bills around this time as well e.g. 43, 46 etc.

Through Freedom of Information I have documented this extensively:

Freedom of Information reveals that the Province of B.C. was working to implement what the registered lobbying organization, the Urban Development Institute, had been pushing for. This culminated in the recent Housing Bills that override local government authority on zoning. – CRD Watch Homepage

How the Development and Real Estate Lobby Pressed Mandatory Housing Targets, Mass Upzoning, Captured Official Community Plans, and Made the Shutting Down of Public Hearings the Norm in British Columbia Under the NDP Government – CRD Watch Homepage

Public release of UDI March 10, 2022 presentation slides, agenda, and lobbying letters to David Eby. – CRD Watch Homepage

The Urban Development Institute lobbied the Province of BC to implement what they called “Global Housing Targets”. The Province would deliver new Housing Bills in response. – CRD Watch Homepage

Index of articles revealing major lobbying influence on B.C. Provincial Housing Bills and Housing Targets. – CRD Watch Homepage

Residents gear up for a fight as Saanich feels the growing pains of density – The Globe and Mail

Sometimes the barrage of lobbying during that time can get confusing.

On March 12, 2021, Anne McMullin sent a letter to the UDI pushing for aggressive housing targets. The following is what appears from a Freedom of Information response from the Ministry of Housing, to have been the agenda for a UDI meeting with Eby that day.

On March 12, 2021 later that day, a top person in the Province of BC Building Safety and Standards Branch (BSSB) wrote: “As I prepare Minister David Eby’s speech, I will use the previous UDI speech as the basis of content. There is a lot of Housing Policy Branch content in there.”

This was in regard to preparations for a speech that would take place a week later for the March 19, “2021 Provincial Meeting Ministers’ Address” which would include Minister Eby, Josie Osborne (Ministry of Municipal Affairs), and the Canadian Homebuilders Association.

It is difficult to tell from the FOI, whether the “UDI speech” referred to, was a speech the UDI gave with Eby in attendance on March 12, 2021, or a speech that Minister Eby provided the UDI that day.

That conundrum might be emblematic of the whole UDI-NDP relationship in general. I don’t know where the UDI starts and the NDP ends and vice versa. As David Eby in his address to the UDI described the relation between them and other levels of government, it’s a “partnership”.

Minister David Eby message to UDI (Update: since initially publishing this in an article, this Youtube video was made unavailable to the general public). That’s OK, as that was predicted to happen, a backed-up version can be seen below or at the following link: Minister David Eby video message to UDI 12 Mar 2021

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Woland’s Ballroom.

So here we are now. It’s heading into the last week of September of 2025, a slow motion trainwreck of delayed municipal reaction and beginning of the election year performances of token opposition to the UDI/Province’s radical housing bills passed almost 2 years previously, a key subject finally and belatedly being focussed on at the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) as an important issue for local governments.

Will the municipalities which have lost much of their powers to the provincial government under Eby’s tenure, be further overshadowed, when the week after, Premier David Eby meets again with Bob Rennie at the expensive taxpayer subsidized UDI luncheon event at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver Ballroom, to be held on October 3, 2025?

“Event Details

Nearly one year after B.C.’s provincial election, UDI invites you to an exclusive conversation between Premier David Eby and Bob Rennie.

In this annual address, Bob Rennie will sit down with the Premier for an insightful, interview-style discussion exploring the milestones, challenges, and evolving priorities that have shaped the post-election landscape.

This is a rare opportunity to hear directly from Premier Eby on the province’s approach to housing, infrastructure, and economic resilience, set against a backdrop of global uncertainty and local pressure.

With a focus on partnership and progress, the conversation will explore how collaboration between industry and government can help meet the growing needs of B.C.’s communities.

Why Attend:

Be part of an exclusive networking event with senior industry and government leaders
Hear directly from the Premier on what’s next for housing, policy, and the economy
Gain insight into how world events are influencing B.C.’s development outlook

This is UDI’s most anticipated luncheon of the year. Reserve your spot early.”

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David Eby before:

B.C. NDP seeks probe into Liberals’ fundraising tactics – The Globe and Mail

David Eby after:

Ticket costs for attending the Oct 3, 2025 Eby-Rennie UDI Luncheon at the Hyatt:

UDI Luncheon – Member Ticket: $150
UDI Luncheon – Table Purchase (corporate tables for 10 UDI members only): $1500
UDI Luncheon – Non Member Ticket: $300
UDI Luncheon – Media Ticket: $300
UDI Luncheon – Public Officials Ticket: $300

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Appendix 2: Transcription of BC Legislature session video posted by the BC NDP Caucus in 2017: “David Eby tells Premier to set record straight on Bob Rennie’s influence on real estate policy”

Video link: David Eby tells Premier to set record straight on Bob Rennie’s influence on real estate policy

Transcription:

SPEAKER: Vancouver Point Grey.

EBY: Thank you, honourable speaker. The week after realtor Bob Rennie told a reporter that he had advanced knowledge of BC’s foreign buyer tax, people got upset; he said it was all a big mistake. Even though Mr. Mr. Rennie was chair of the premier’s fundraising committee, had pledged to raise $10 million for the premier through private dinner parties. He said he couldn’t possibly have known about the tax in advance. Why not? Well, according to Mr. Rennie, quote, “I don’t speak to them about that because it’s my core competency,” unquote, that both the premier and her housing minister knew that their chief fundraiser’s explanation about how we couldn’t possibly know simply wasn’t true. So to the premier, why didn’t she set the record straight?

HOUSE SPEAKER: Madam Premier.

CLARK: Thank you, Madam Speaker, and I will do my best to um observe your admonition um of a few moments ago in my answer today. And but let me start by saying this. The foreign uh the tax on foreign purchasers in British Columbia has done exactly what the government and I what citizens hoped it would do and that is slow down the in tremendous growth in the cost of housing in the lower mainland. We did it. The NDP opposed it. It turned out it did exactly what we expected it would do.

The foreign buyers tax, the luxury tax on homes over $2 million, the almost billion-dollar investment in affordable housing, the biggest investment from any government in a single year in Canadian history. The changes in the property purchase tax for first time and new home buyers. The home program, again, one that the member of the opposition said he would scrap, but one that is tremendously important for getting young people into their first home by helping them scrape together their first down payment. Housing is something we need to keep within the reach of middle class people in British Columbia. Our government is taking action. We are going to make sure that we continue to take this action because every British Columbian, every British Columbian deserves the opportunity to own their own home.

SPEAKER: Member for Vancouver Point Gray on a supplemental.

EBY: Well, thank you honourable speaker. I know the premier doesn’t want to talk about her cozy relationship with Mr. Rennie and how that led to 2 years of the opposition trying to get her attention while home prices in Metro Vancouver spiked over $600,000. But we’re going to talk about that, Madam Speaker, because the premier’s relationship and her housing minister’s relationship with Mr. Rennie as chief fundraiser is very clear. The housing minister exchanged multiple emails with Mr. Rennie in which he and Mr. Rennie discussed budget measures related to real estate and the environmental approval process in relation to a major housing development near Squamish that Mr. Rennie surely hoped to market. They also talked about classic cars. Madam Speaker, as for the premier, Mr. Rennie forwarded a proposal for the Metro Vancouver real estate market to Carol Taylor, the premier’s special adviser, saying, quote, “We need a very visible approach to curbing speculation and the optics of working towards affordability.” That email was forwarded by the premier’s special adviser to the premier’s director of policy. Mr. Rennie apparently forgot that he talks to the highest levels in this government about real estate policy. So, will the premier now admit that Mr. Rennie, major fundraiser, dinner party host, BC Liberal Party insider, and friend, had it right the first time when he talked to the reporter and he said he had advanced notice of the foreign buyer tax.

SPEAKER: Madam Premier

CLARK: Thanks, Madam Speaker. Uh I I’m sure a lot of developers and people in the development industry had a lot of feelings about the foreign tax and um what we discovered after we introduced it is that almost to a person they don’t like it just like the NDP they oppose the foreign buyers tax. We charged ahead with it anyway because we want to make sure that housing stays affordable for middleclass British Columbians. It’s part of a long suite of of changes that we’ve made. The member might be interested to know the program, the home program that’s designed to help young people scrape together that first down payment. The program that he says he would like to see scrapped has already had over a hundred approvals from people buying homes in just the city of Vancouver. I know the foreign tax, it was not popular with developers, but I do know that it’s popular with British Columbians because it did exactly what we had hoped it would do, and that slow down the explosive growth in the cost of housing in the Lower Mainland. It’s been popular because it works and it’s uh something that the government has supported because we believe in the right of middle class British Columbians to be able to have a part of the dream of owning their own home. SPEAKER: Vancouver Point Gray on a final supplemental.

EBY: Well, honourable speaker, I know the premier doesn’t want to talk about her relationship with Mr. Rennie. Again, no answer to the question. But it wasn’t just email access at the highest levels of this government that Mr. Rennie got for being chief fundraiser for the premier and dinner host. It got him so much more. Mr. Rennie met with the premier’s special adviser in April of 2016 and again in June of 2016, just weeks before the foreign buyer tax was announced. Imagine, honourable speaker, Mr. Rennie’s joy when the premier formally announced a few weeks later that she’d be bringing in a foreign buyer tax but that she’d be exempting the speculation on pre-sale condos. Now why would Mr. Rennie be happy about that, Madam Speaker? Well, selling pre-sale condos is why Mr. Rennie is the condo king, Madam Speaker. That’s his core competency. How can the premier defend giving her chief fundraiser access to the most senior policy members in her office, weeks before the foreign buyer tax was introduced, and then exempting his core business from that same foreign buyer tax, and then when he told the media that he never talked to the premier’s office and he never talked to ministers about real estate policy in BC, not setting the record straight, because it wasn’t true.

SPEAKER: Madam Premier,

CLARK: thanks Madam Speaker. Just like all the members of this house who on that day when the legislation was introduced were shocked because they had no advanced notice, nor did anyone in the industry have any advanced notice that this was going to happen. And just to point out how silly the member’s argument is, after the fact, we saw all kinds of media coverage of developers come and people who depend on the development industry complaining loudly and tenaciously along with the NDP that the foreign tax was the exactly the wrong thing to do. Well, guess what? It turned out to be absolutely the right thing to do. It slowed down the explosive growth in the real estate market, inflated prices of, you know, all of which benefit the people who sell uh who sell homes professionally. We slowed that down exactly as we had planned to do. And in doing so, we are making sure I know the NDP don’t care if people get to own their own home, but on this side of the house, we believe that home ownership, the opportunity to wake up in a place you can call your own, a place that you can raise your children in, a place where you won’t have to move at the end of every month or you know you can be in for the rest of your life is important for as an important dream for thousands and thousands of British Columbians. On the free enterprise side of this house, we understand that that dream is real. We understand why it’s important. And we are going to continue to make sure we keep that dream, within the reach of middle-class British Columbians.

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References:

Clark’s Pay from Donors Too Tied to Real Estate Moguls: Eby | The Tyee

B.C. condo marketer Bob Rennie accused of advance knowledge of foreign real estate buyer tax | CBC News

How rich elites took over BC…and the Liberals welcomed them | The Common Sense Canadian