Liberal and NDP Leaders Play Waiting Game
Prince George, B.C. – What a difference a recount can make.
A week removed from the closest – and perhaps nastiest – provincial election in B.C. history and BC Premier Christy Clark promised to work collaboratively with the BC NDP and BC Greens in a news conference today.
“People have told us they want us to work collaboratively regardless of who they voted for,” said Clark just moments after a caucus meeting in Vancouver. “We will listen, and you want a government to deliver what matters to you.”
She added she has had discussions with BC Green Leader Andrew Weaver and John Horgan of the NDP though she declined to say much arguing it would be inappropriate to negotiate in the media.
“But I will say they were friendly conversations and discussed how much British Columbians want us all to work together and I think there’s an appetite to do so.”
As for specific policy questions like what may happen to the Kinder Morgan pipeline, Site C and electoral reform she said she “wont’ know the answers to any of those questions until the final results are in” and ended the media availability after less than five minutes.
About an hour later Horgan met the media in Victoria repeating much of what he said election night.
“So, we’re a week in and there’s still no (election) resolution,” he said. “But we do know that 60 per cent of voters voted for change. For an economy that works for everyone.”
He also said he believes the remaining 179,000 absentee ballots will confirm the same electoral outcome.
Horgan seemed doubtful when told of Clark’s promise to work collaboratively with other parties arguing his adversaries had 16 years to do so while in government but didn’t.
He admitted the obvious though – that he has much more in common with BC Green Leader Andrew Weaver than Clark.
“Both parties care about proportional representation, about getting big money out of politics and protecting our coast,” Horgan said. “We’ll have a conversation about those things once the results are complete.”
Comments
And Andrew is laughing and couldn’t care less about either of their opinions . Christy is toast . She garnered less than 40 % of the popular vote . That’s the rub . Less than 40 % of the popular vote is worth thinking about libs . And , some of that Less than 40 % of the popular vote was people holding their wallets and noses to vote Christy .
I doubt that Andy is laughing. He is between a rock and a hard place. Does he hang with the Liberals and support their legislation?? If so what are the chances that they will do anything about Site C or anything else.?? The Liberals will call an election just as soon as they can, because they cannot go four years with little greenies nipping at their heels.
He could form a Government with the NDP put the Liberals into the opposition (where they belong) and he could then get a cabinet post and stay in Government for four years. This would be the smart move to make.
If we go into an election within the next year or so, the Greens could disappear altogether. Does he want to take that chance??? Can he or the NDP afford another election sooner rather than later.??
Christy Clark captured 59.6 percent of the popular vote in her riding, and as a party, the Liberals have over 40 percent at 40.86. You are not accurate in your statement.
56.6 % on the other side of the latest Bennett bridge . You are correct , 59.14 did not vote Cristy . That could still change a bit on the 24th .
Wonder what people she was talking to, that asked her to work collaboratively>
Weaver is playing hardball… wants 3rd party status with full benefits. It may end up that he’ll be left in the cold if he doesn’t make his move now
He didn’t win enough seats for 3rd party status!
I keep hearing about his integrity. I guess it’s ok to demand 3rd party status even if you don’t qualify for it, especially when you have integrity!
Or perhaps Weaver is just like every other politician who thinks the rules don’t apply to them or can be changed to suit them!
So much for integrity!
but that’s one of his demands with crusty.. Third part status with full benefits
What is a possibility, is the some liberals will cross the floor with a promise of a ministry position since they know te liberals are hanging on by a threat
The greens will have a limited time in the spotlight anyway, either one of the other two parties will shed them as soon as they are no longer needed.
The result of this latest election is interesting, but in the end, it is bad news for B.C. Better to have one party with a majority, I think that more business can be accomplished that way, less posturing and argument.
metalman.
A lot of people sure want their house values to drop in half in this area….guess they weren’t around in the 90’s.
I think one of the biggest things that happened with this election was the complete failure of the Steelworkers-NDP partnership. The whole thing was just ridiculous from the get go and a complete failure to the membership on the part of the Steelworkers.
The Steelworkers put out a 6-page high-gloss newsletter promoting the NDP. They paid for the wages of the top NDP organizers, and were among the parties largest political donors…. It was an unprecedented involvement by a private sector union in trying to influence the outcome of an election.
When one considers the Steelworkers have nearly 4500 members in their Prince George branch alone, then surely if they were successful they would have got the vote out in PG. Not the case though, as the NDP failed big in both riding’s… The NDP did great however in the Lower Mainland where they lack almost any Steelworkers members.
In PG if every Steelworker family voted NDP it would account for all their votes… meaning they would have had to had no votes from public sector unions like teachers and health care worker families… clearly that is not the case though. I would argue Steelworker members did not follow their leadership and vote NDP.
Why would the Steelworker members not vote NDP as directed by their union leadership? With 4500 members in PG alone each paying $1000 a year in union dues… clearly Steelworkers has a lot of money to influence the vote, but how did all that largess fail to translate into votes for the NDP?
In their 6-page flier it promoted USW International President Leo Gerard campaigning with the NDP leader John Horgan… its a hard image to swallow when during the same campaign he was attacking Canadian softwood lumber jobs by standing beside President Trump in the oval office as Trump signed the executive order that implemented those tariffs on our lumber.
The rhetoric of the NDP-Steelworkers newsletter was one that attacked greedy ‘forest company bosses’… the rich corporate backers of Christy Clark that are subsidized with cuts to funding for forest services and reforestation, and profiteering on raw log exports… as well as highlighting the donations the companies made to the BC liberals and the wink wink of what it buys them… all arguments USW International President Leo Gerard was sure to share with his counterparts on the American side that were going after our industry through tariffs.
So the Steelworkers pushed the narrative that the ‘greedy bosses’ were profiting at the workers expense (maybe true, but dumb to advertise this in a shared newsletter with an interested party in softwood lumber tariffs)… but meanwhile last week statistics were release in America that showed union organizers had an average annual pay that was $60,000 more per year than the average American CEO of a corporation… so who here is the greedy profiteer at the expense of the workers?
I haven’t seen CEO’s taking a $1000 a year out of the pockets of each worker… no money for strike funds, but unheard of largess for extreme partisan participation in the election for a party that is against rural industrial projects, uses anti industry rhetoric to inflame tensions in the softwood lumber dispute, and doesn’t seem to have the vote of its members not electing any MLA’s in areas where Steelworkers have members… and then the union ‘bosses’ live off the dues collected as their representative for the union.
IMO this election highlights the failure of unions to represent in a fiduciary duty the interests of their members in the areas limited to their industries and with a direct impact on their jobs. A union has a right, or a duty, to speak up during an election for the issues specific to that union, but once that crosses into hard core partisan participation I think it crosses a line that should ensure unions don’t speak politically for its members… as not all members that pay forced union dues share the same political bend as its union bosses… and the damage it does to relations between government and the union should the union pick the losing side (who gives them the right to take that gamble with your voice and your dues).
I think for the NDP it was a big win for them to get that kind of support from a private sector union… even if only as a Trojan horse for American union-industry partners. For the Steelworkers their participation was an epic failure for the union and its members, and yet it would have been an even bigger failure for its members if the NDP had won… but in the end there will be no union accountability either way.
I think it is just another reason why we need right to work legislation in BC where union membership become an option and not a bonifide requirement for employment at a union shop. Actions like that of the Steelworkers this last election only fuel that eventuality in the minds of those that feel unions have no place in our electoral process other than as a third party advocacy on policy.
To me the epic Steelworks-NDP failure in this election is one of its biggest stories outside of the minority government configuration.
Time Will Tell
CUPE paid for their election signs, not sure where the 7 million they collected in donations went – they only had to give back 12,000.00 in illegal contributions so far.
Vancouver voted NDP to get a 400 dollar rebate on their annual rent, removal of tolls and 10 dollar a day daycare. The platform costing was all “it will pay for itself”. Those 3 alone were 3 billion annually in costs. They said the Liberals gave the wealthy a 1 billion dollar gift by lowering taxes – and by raising taxes they were going to pay for these items. You can see taxes were on the rise for everyone.
This site has rules about everything else, why doesn’t it have one for verbosity? In fact, I thought some people had been warned in the past about using the comment section for a soapbox.
Waaaaa… I can’t handle other people’s opinions when they are different than mine and I want it all to go away…waaaaaa
Wow, touchy moderators. Keep this site clean. Goodbye advertisers. The death of 250 is on watch.
Comments for this article are closed.