In a busy day in B.C. politics, we heard details of the NDP and Green Party deal to form a minority government and we heard what Premier Christy Clark plans to do in the face of that reality.
It all happened in the space of about an hour. First, we heard a sombre sounding Clark announce her intention to stay on as premier and face a confidence vote in the legislature.
"We have a duty to meet the house and to test its confidence. Constitutional convention tells us that and I intend to do that in very short order, certainly before the end -maybe closer to the beginning- of the month of June," Clark said. "If there is going to be a transfer of power in this province, and it certainly seems like there will be, it shouldn’t' be done behind closed doors. It should happen in public as constitutional convention tells us it should. It should happen in the people's house with 87 members elected by British Columbians to our legislature making that decision."
A Liberal defeat in a confidence vote would open the door for the NDP to form a minority government, propped up by the Green Party. The NDP won 41 seats and the Greens won 3 in the May 9th election. Together, their 44 seats in the legislature outnumber the Liberal's 43.
Right after the Premier spoke, NDP Leader John Horgan and Green Leader Andrew Weaver signed their formal deal to make that happen. "We're demonstrating today that between Andrew's caucus and my caucus, the Green and NDP groups of elected representatives, we have the majority of support in the legislature," said Horgan after formally signing the deal along with his caucus.
The deal includes items such as holding a referendum next year on proportional representation, banning corporate and union donations to political parties, using “every tool available” to stop the expansion of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline, and referring the Site C hydroelectric dam to the B.C. Utilities Commission to determine its economic viability.
But, all of that will have to wait until the confidence vote in the B.C. Legislature sometime in the month of June. Clark laid it out this way, "should my government not meet the test of confidence in the house, which I think is likely, then [the Lieutenant Governor] would, I think, go and ask the NDP as the party that got the second largest number of seats whether or not they could govern. But [the Lieutenant Governor] will make that decision. I won't be making that request because the decision is solely hers."