The province of British Columbia is having trouble making up its mind.
After a month-long provincial election campaign we are still very much a house divided.
After the dust settled Wednesday morning, Christy Clark’s Liberals were elected or leading in 43 seats; John Horgan’s NDP were elected/leading in 41 seats, while Andrew Weaver’s Green Party held the balance of power with three seats.
That set off a dizzying round of speculation, which may not be resolved by the time you read this. In fact, it may not be resolved until the final Elections BC count May 22. Indecision rules: A Liberal minority government? A Green-NDP coalition? What impact will absentee ballots have once they are counted?
It will shake down eventually, but who knows when? If you like living in interesting times, this has been the election for you.
Fortunately, columnists are rarely daunted by an absence of facts, and are ever ready to fill that vacuum with … column inches.
For example: the NDP gained nine or 10 seats in the Lower Mainland, where people went looking for relief. And relief was the core of Horgan’s campaign: Relief from insane housing prices, relief from daily commuter tolls, relief from crowded, inadequate transit, relief from long waits for surgery, relief from scarce daycare and the remorseless erosion of the public school system.
Meanwhile, with the exception of a few scattered seats, voters in B.C.’s vast Interior went Liberal, convinced by all those resource jobs Christy Clark promised. Now, the fate of pipelines and hydro and LNG megaprojects hang in the balance, as both Horgan and Weaver oppose them. And both Horgan and Weaver are much more powerful this week.
On Vancouver Island, it’s apparently easy being Green; Andrew Weaver is sitting pretty on his three seats as he waits to hear what the Liberals are offering to stay in power or what gifts the NDP bear to enlist his aid to wrest power from the Liberals. The Greens have gone from marginal to pivotal just like that. Well, there’s one decisive result.
Here on the North Shore, it’s almost business as usual. Ralph Sultan, B.C.’s oldest MLA, now has a chance to go for the world’s record, as he got his usual million or so votes. Jane Thornthwaite and Jordan Sturdy were re-elected in their ridings as well. But it wasn’t a clean sweep for the Liberals, as Naomi yamamoto was defeated by NDP rookie Bowinn Ma in North Vancouver-Lonsdale, a riding John Horgan visited three times during the campaign, like a shark circling a wounded seal.
And North Van will be immortalized as the scene of Christy Clark’s near-fatal campaign error, when she walked away from a voter named Linda Higgins, who became #IamLinda, the social media Voice of the People and emblem of Clark’s arrogance. You’ve gotta pay attention to the people, Christy. If you don’t, the video goes viral.
It may be a good thing that the North Shore hedged its bets by electing at least one New Democrat. With a foot in both political camps, someone can advocate on our behalf, whoever forms the government.
But I wouldn’t hold my breath in hope that the daily gridlock on the Upper Levels highway or the three-lane horror that is the Lions Gate will be resolved.
As for affordable housing, that’s pretty much over on the North Shore. The last condo under $400,000 sold last week; you missed it and no politician, left, right or Green can bring it back.
There remains the time-honoured tradition of praying to St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, who has no political affiliation.
There was a lot of talk on election night about how a minority government or a coalition could change the way politicians behave in B.C. going forward.
After a month of calling each other horrible, nasty names, they now have to co-operate to get anything done. Of course, it’s more likely the legislature will dissolve into an orgy of chaotic jockeying and backstabbing, any attempt to form a government will fail, and we’ll have to do this all over again a year or 18 months from now.
Right now, a few hundred votes in four or five ridings will change the fortunes of any of the three not-so-amigos. Whether or not Christy Clark or John Horgan is our next premier could depend on one or two recounts in a couple of weeks.
At least there’s one thing I can count on: Ralph Sultan remains my West Vancouver-Capilano MLA. There was no hesitation on that one.
Journalist and communications consultant Paul Sullivan has been a North Vancouver resident since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of Madonna. [email protected]
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