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October 27, 2017 5:38 pm

Clark Says She Will Lead the BC Government.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017 @ 6:00 AM

Prince George, B.C. – One thing is clear,  B.C.  will have a minority  government,  and Christy Clark  is confident she will  be at the helm.

After midnight,  the  Liberals  had been elected  or were leading in 43 ridings,  the NDP  were elected  or leading in 41.  The Greens had picked up three seats.  A Party  needs 44 seats to  form  a majority.

“It is my intention to continue to lead British Columbia’s government” Clark told  supporters at the Liberal headquarters, but   said   voters have  given government  the opportunity to do things differently “to open a whole dialogue in our Province, in our legislature, a dialogue about how we do things,  what we should do, how we want to shape the future of our province so tonight  is the beginning of something very different.”

Christy Clark  addressed her supporters  at  the Liberal Headquarters in Vancouver   by  recognizing the  uncertain results “Something’s only happen in British Columbia”.

There is certain to be a  judicial recount in  at least one riding where there were just nine votes between  the declared  winner ( NDP)  and  the Liberal candidate.  The  final results  may not be known  for at least another two weeks  when the absentee ballots are counted  and the judicial recounts  have been completed.

The Liberals won the popular  vote,  but fell  short of  the  necessary  ridings “With absentee ballots still to be counted, I am confident they will strengthen our margin of victory. So it is my intention to continue to lead British Columbia’s government”   She said the  message from British Columbian voters was clear “They did tell us,  they want us to do things differently,  they want us to  work together,  they want us to work across party lines  and they want us to  find a way to get along so we can  all  can  work  for the  Province  that all of us love so very, very much.”

She said voters have reminded the Liberals  to be humble,  “our job is to lead,  but  that we need to  remember who we serve, and that we need to  focus on things  that matter to ordinary British Columbians.”

She thanked  both John Horgan  and Andrew Weaver for running strong campaigns  and for being passionate  about the things  in which they  believe.

In his  address,  NDP leader John Horgan  thanked his  campaign team, candidates  and supporters but  didn’t  concede to  the Liberals “British Columbians have waited 16 years for a government that works for them,  and you’re going to have to wait a little longer until all the votes are counted and the final  results are known.”  Horgan  said this election “will go down in history as being one that will transform us.”

Green Leader Andrew Weaver  says  he expects to work  with “anyone”  but does expect  one of the first bills  to  come into the legislature  will ban  big  money from  political parties.  He said negotiations are already underway.

Clark  says at a time when B.C. is facing  U.S. protectionism the time  has come to work together  “In the face of rising protectionism in the United States,  economic  uncertainty  around the world,  now more than ever,   B.C.  needs strong leadership.”  She   said the province needs to be  united “and cannot be distracted  by partisanship , we cannot be divided.”

Comments

People been telling her for a long time but she ignored them all and plowed straight ahead. She was power hungry and only a election would stop her. She probably won’t last long.. The people have spoken.. This is very similar to when Jack Layton ran in the Federal elections

I don’t think all the voters got out to vote, really. A minority government will have a hard time getting things done their way. Perhaps a non confidence vote is next! I think the people are basically fed up with her, but they went with the devil they know as opposed to the one they don’t.

    I was thinking exactly the same thing. I guess it just depends who Mr. Weaver gets along with best. He has mentioned before that he and Horgan don’t really get along. Politics, the animal we love to hate. LOL

      I’m hoping it stays a minority gov. and that the MLA’s actually have to sit in the legislature and debate . Not happy with all that the lib’s have done in 16 years but didn’t want a NDP gov. either .

A new trend.. students voting. They where told they can make a difference.

If I was Horgan I’d be worried about my 40 MLAs. Any one of them could decide to become a Queen maker just by crossing the floor and ensuring themselves at the very least a nice plumb for their riding and as much as a Cabinet post.

Sure, there’d be howling and you’d get the usual – I did what was best for my riding and having a minister blah blah blah.

So Weaver isn’t the only one holding a lot of power here. Basically any nominal NDP MLA has just as much pull as Weaver.

I suspect Courtenay will go to the Liberals. The absentee ballots tend to favor whoever has the most committed support base – which I think is the Liberals. So if someone is going to jump ship, they need to jump before that result is known.

    Pretty hard to dispute any of what you have stated ski51! Now we wait and see!

    Much like our past Federal election, I had hoped that the incumbent government would pull out a win, albeit one that came with a real fear of losing the election. This scenario tends to humble the government, taking them down off of their high horse a bit, moving them a bit more to the centre of the political spectrum and making them more responsive to more points of view. That didn’t happen federally, instead we ended up with an incompetent fool as Prime Minister. Time will tell how things work out provincially!

    personally, I predict that Clark’s members will cross the floor..

Technically, what you say about a New Democrat switching allegiance could be true, although your scenario could apply equally well to a Liberal switching to the NDP, or even a Green or two making a switch to the NDP. The only reason Clarke has the edge is because she has one seat more than the NDP, for the moment. We are just going to have to wait a couple of weeks to see how this pans out and, perhaps more importantly, discover who the Greens are going to support. No more sitting on the fence for them.

    2 seats more than the NDP

    All 3 Greens are needed to cross the floor to the NDP

    Horgan sounds like Clinton after the American election.

I think that this election clearly showed a divide between the urban Vancouverites and the rest of the Province.

Considering that the bulk of the wealth in this province is generated outside of the lower mainland, this could prove interesting!

In two weeks, we should know whose going to be governing.

A wide majority of British Columbians voted for a different government. Maybe that is what we will get.

    So if you voted for the Green Party you now are happy that you voted for a NDP MLA? Or you voted NDP and now your MLA is a Green? There is always turmoil in the voting public whenever anyone crosses the floor. Some people vote on party lines and not for a certain individual, a lot of Green voters would not be happy if they were all of the sudden an NDP voter, same goes for all parties.

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