After three months of watching it in action, it’s clear there’s a big difference between a majority and a minority government.
There’s more “rah rah” for democracy, common courtesy and togetherness. Less “nyah nyah, we won you lost” in the day-to-day exchanges.
That’s because there was no clear winner. The confidence that comes from having a clear majority isn’t there for Premier John Horgan, so the high-handedness that governments often develop isn’t there, or at least, isn’t rampant. Horgan has also recreated himself from a frustrated, snappish opposition leader into a premier who likes what he’s doing so much that most of the barrage of criticism in the legislature doesn’t appear to get to him — much.
The biggest surprise so far, he told reporters this week, is “how much I’m enjoying it.”
“I anticipated the workload, the lack of anonymity, but I didn’t anticipate how much I would enjoy engaging with people … and that people are genuinely happy that there is a new group of people in power, regardless of how they voted.”
The NDP and Greens have repeatedly assured everyone that the May election was “a clear message that people want the parties to work together.” That’s their interpretation. It was a virtual dead heat. There was nothing clear about the outcome. That’s why it took three months to figure it out.
But the two caucuses figured out a working arrangement — the confidence and supply agreement — and it withstood the first encounter with the enemy, those sullen, resentful B.C. Liberals. That’s more than you can say about most battle plans.
Liberals, for their part, had to cope with all the wrenching adjustments that go with moving to the opposition side, even though they won more seats than the NDP. It isn’t easy, and none of them convinced anyone it was.
They also had to cope with the obligation to show due deference to Speaker Darryl Plecas. The former Liberal is now an Independent, and he betrayed them at the outset of the sitting by breaking ranks with his caucus and deciding to take the job. That reduced the opposition ranks by just enough to give the NDP and Greens some breathing room.
As a measure of how much that still rankles, interim Liberal leader Rich Coleman pursued a line of questioning with Horgan this week about NDP negotiations with Plecas that seemed to allude to criminal inducements. It went nowhere.
Liberals were also preoccupied by the leadership race that developed after Christy Clark quit politics in August. Five sitting Liberal MLAs were trying to hold the NDP and each other to account at the same time. The house sitting constrained the race, but some major differences started to simmer, and they’ll heat up now that the legislature is adjourned. They include arguments about pricing promises, and whether there’s room for an outsider (Dianne Watts) in the race.
Meanwhile, the three Greens perched at the end of the government aisles, managing the balance of power. The confidence agreement obliges them to support the NDP on major items. But at the same time they have the balance of power, they have to balance their own diminished independence. So Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver made a few stabs at criticizing the government. He launched on Energy Minister Michelle Mungall over her presumptuous announcement of an electricity rate freeze before it was approved by the B.C. Utilities Commission.
If the upcoming Site C dam decision is to carry on, Greens will sulk. But the agreement will probably carry on.
The main goal of the whole arrangement is to change the voting system in time for the next election to make it more representative of all parties. Greens wanted to do it unilaterally, but the NDP held to the original promise of a referendum. Now they’re slanting the process several ways to get the result they want, and ditching promises to make it as fair as possible.
The minority curbs the NDP’s ability to dictate policy. It doesn’t stop the unfair scheming that’s going into this process.
Changing the system is a valid question, but the manipulation aimed at driving the answer that the NDP and Greens want could wind up invalidating the answer they get a year from now.
