Well BC, it happened. The progressive forces were too strong, and the hate for Christy Clark too great to prevent what some saw as an inevitable deal between John Horgan’s BC NDP and Andrew Weaver’s BC Greens.
The deal was announced yesterday afternoon after a couple of weeks waiting for the final recount, which changed nothing, and negotiations between the Green Party and the NDP.
Watch as I show you why their razor thin majority will be tenuous and may not last, and why the nomination of a speaker will present challenges too.
All of this has further reaching implications for the province, the country, and especially for our friends in Alberta.
The main areas of agreement between the NDP and Greens are not just in their opposition to Christy Clark, but mostly the big energy projects in this province.
Both are against the Site C dam, both are for the most part against an LNG industry, and both oppose the Transmountain Pipeline which is key to the Alberta oil sands getting more product to market.
Stay tuned in the following days to see how the BC Liberals and Christy Clark respond.
Clark should indeed make a very Green friendly throne speech. And dare Weaver to bring the government down. The public will then see how implacable he really is.
I agree, Clark should step down and put in a new BC Liberal leader asap.
(FWIW, I am no fan of the BC Liberals, my vote is nothing but ANYTHING BUT THE NDP action)
Andrew, mute point. He knows FN’s will never let it happen. Easy for him to say he is for it when he knows it will never happen.
I quote PM Harper who said that an election is much like a race; there is only one winner. The person that came 2nd and the person that came 3rd cannot get together and say that between both of us we beat the person that came 1st. "
Actually, in the Parliamentary system, they can. Whoever controls the Legislature, controls government, and an NDP-Green coalition does just that.
“Billy Howard commented 1 hour ago
If Clark can put the interest of British Columbians ahead of her ego, then this should happen:
Call a leadership convention for just after the opening date of the legislature
If the NDP/Greens dare to vote “non-confidence”, then the new Liberal leader will be fighting the election. "
A non-confidence vote is inevitable, Clark who has the most seats will be asked first if she can form a government with the confidence of the house, and when that fails, it’s not an automatic election – the AG has the discretion to ask the Opposition if they can gain confidence of the House – which, with the NDP+Green coalition… they can, making Horgan premier. No election needs to take place, and it would be a waste of time to drop the writ again bare days after the previous election was cleared up.
Call a leadership convention for just after the opening date of the legislature
If the NDP/Greens dare to vote “non-confidence”, then the new Liberal leader will be fighting the election.
Will Horgan want to go up against Kevin Falcon? Dianne Watts? James Moore? Andrew Saxton? Wai Young? Or some other challenger without the Clark baggage? Probably not for awhile, and BC will continue to be run by a centre-right government thus saving us from NDP destruction (see Alberta).
Only addition is I agree with Mr. Wilson. Christy Clarke is cagey, time is on her side, and she could pull the 2008 trick of Stephen Harper. He noted that the 2008 agreement was informal because it did not create a coalition, so chose to wait it out.
My bet is a new BC election in 2018.
U F B…