NDP And Green Party Now Need To Deliver The Change B.C. Voted For

“When nothing is sure, everything is possible.”- Author Margaret Drabble

By Bill Tieleman

While the dramatic cliffhanger B.C. election left many questions unanswered, one thing is clear – B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark is finished.

The overwhelming majority of British Columbians voted for change – and now it’s up to the New Democratic and Green parties to deliver it – by defeating the B.C. Liberals and throwing Clark out of office.

It might take days or a bit longer – but either way, the decaying 16-year B.C. Liberal government with its despicable sense of privileged entitlement and dedication to big money, pay for play politics – is going to be turfed.

Even if absentee ballots and recounts were to unfortunately give Clark a bare majority, there is no way the B.C. Liberals can continue for long.

Why? Because it only takes one B.C. Liberal MLA crossing the floor to the NDP or Greens or sitting as an independent or quitting or, god forbid, passing away, and Christy Clark no longer controls the B.C. Legislature.

Or it could be a B.C. Liberal MLA missing a confidence vote for the government to be defeated. That means either B.C. NDP leader John Horgan would be asked to form a new government, with Green Party support, or a new election could be called.

Horgan did an amazing job despite being discounted by many commentators – bringing the NDP tantalizingly close to a majority government and still on the brink of possibly becoming premier.

And if not for local NDP riding in-fighting in Cowichan, Columbia River-Revelstoke and Fraser-Nicola over bitterly contested nominations, likely costing the party three seats, Horgan would be premier-elect now.

And Green leader Andrew Weaver also had a stunning breakthrough, doubling the party’s last 

vote to 16% and tripling their seats.

But premier Clark is the big loser. Despite boasting about B.C. having Canada’s strongest economy and four balanced budgets – true – Clark’s Liberals lost four cabinet ministers, her popular vote dropped and a comfortable majority turned into a minority.

That happened even though Clark spent $15 million in taxpayer dollars on partisan government advertising wrongly promoting the B.C. Liberals and having the most heavily corporately funded political party in Canada, raising over $12 million in 2016.

The verdict is in – Clark must be thrown out.

This column was originally published in the metro Vancouver newspaper 24 Hours!

Bill Tieleman is a former NDP strategist. Read his blog at billtieleman.blogspot.com or Email: weststar@telus.net Twitter: @BillTieleman