North Shore MLAs say they know as much as anyone else about how B.C.’s ongoing political drama will unfold when the B.C. legislature is recalled on Thursday.
MLAs from both sides of the political house have spent the past six weeks since the May 9 election in a state of limbo, with the Liberals occupying a role of “caretaker government” until the legislature formally reconvenes.
“It is frustrating,” said Bowinn Ma, NDP MLA for North Vancouver-Lonsdale, who unseated Liberal cabinet minister Naomi Yamamoto on election night. “There are people who need help desperately. We’re not in a position to help them yet.”
Ma said she’s already been getting calls and emails from constituents concerned about issues like housing and child care. But currently, it’s hard to know how to respond, she said.
“So many questions are up in the air,” she said.
A throne speech is expected from the Liberals on Thursday.
“We are still the government,” said North Vancouver-Seymour Liberal MLA Jane Thornthwaite. “We did get the most amount of seats. We did have the popular vote.”
Thornthwaite said an MLA from the Liberal ranks in all likelihood will become Speaker of the House – although she added, “It’s not me.”
Ralph Sultan, Liberal MLA from West Vancouver-Capilano, said he’s also not in the running to be Speaker. “No one asked me,” he said.
David Moscrop, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University, said technically nobody has to agree to be Speaker, although if that happens, it means an election would be called.
Both Thornthwaite and Sultan said they’re anticipating debate on the throne speech to continue over several days, likely ending in a vote before the Canada Day weekend.
“It’ll be put to a vote and we’ll be defeated,” said Sultan.
“We’ll have to vacate the nice offices with plaster walls and move into the plywood partitions. It’ll be quite a comedown for many of my colleagues. It doesn’t really matter much to me.”
Among those facing a possible loss of power is West Vancouver-Sea to Sky Liberal MLA Jordan Sturdy, who was recently appointed environment minister by Premier Christy Clark. Sturdy did not return calls by press time.
The NDP and Green Party are then expected to ask the lieutenant governor for a chance to form government.
At that point “the lieutenant governor is now faced with some tough choices,” said Sultan.
One option would be to allow the NDP and Greens to take a crack at governing. Another would be to call for another election. North Shore MLAs said almost nobody is keen on a snap election.
“I think another election after we’ve just had one would be an incredible disservice to British Columbians. It’s an incredible amount of time and money – public money as well as private money,” said Ma. “I would say people are definitely experiencing election fatigue.”
“Nobody wants a new election,” said Sultan.
Moscrop said the most likely scenario is that the NDP will get a chance to govern, propped up the Greens. Historically in Canada, minority governments last between a year and 18 months, he said, although there is always room for surprises.
“It’s not clear to me the agreement (between the NDP and the Greens) is as solid as has been reported,” he said. “There’s all kinds of land mines scattered internally.”
Under that scenario, the Speaker of the House would also have to cast a deciding vote more often than not, with votes otherwise expected to be tied 43-43.
Ma said she doesn’t think that’s a huge problem. “There are certainly conventions around how the speaker is meant to behave,” she said. “Conventions are meant to be guidelines. We’re facing a situation we’ve never faced before with such tight margins in the house.”
The throne speech Thursday is expected to contain several measures previously rejected by the Liberals – including increases for welfare and disability rates and a ban on corporate and union donations to political parties.
Thornthwaite and Sultan said the about-face on those issues has come about as a result of feedback the party got during the election.
“The voters have spoken and we have listened. Yes, we are not perfect and we will try to do better,” said Sultan.
Moscrop said the Liberals appear to be positioning themselves for the next election. It’s nice when a political party is responsive, he said, but added, “It would have been nice if they’d been responsive during the last 16 years.”
