{"id":104530,"date":"2017-05-29T22:38:56","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T02:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=104530"},"modified":"2017-05-29T22:38:56","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T02:38:56","slug":"the-ball-is-in-b-c-premier-christy-clarks-court-political-scientists-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/05\/29\/the-ball-is-in-b-c-premier-christy-clarks-court-political-scientists-say\/","title":{"rendered":"The ball is in B.C. Premier Christy Clark’s court, political scientists say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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All eyes are on Premier Christy Clark after Monday’s announcement that British Columbia’s New Democrats have reached an agreement with the Green party to form a minority government, experts say. (Photo: Christy Clark\/ Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VANCOUVER \u2014 All eyes are on Premier Christy Clark after Monday’s announcement that British Columbia’s New Democrats have reached an agreement with the Green party to form a minority government, experts say.<\/p>\n

NDP Leader John Horgan and Andrew Weaver of the Greens appeared outside the legislative chamber in Victoria to share the news. They said details of the agreement would be released Tuesday after the NDP caucus has had a chance to ratify the deal, which is expected to last four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ball is really in Christy Clark’s court at this point,\u201d said Max Cameron, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question will be, does she do the elegant thing, which would be to resign and let John Horgan and the NDP form the government … or does she attempt to go it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, Clark said her party has a responsibility to carefully consider its next steps and that she would have more to say Tuesday after consulting her caucus colleagues.<\/p>\n

Weaver has been negotiating with both parties since his party held the balance of power in the legislature after the provincial election on May 9.<\/p>\n

The Liberals won a plurality of seats with 43 compared to the NDP’s 41 and three for the Greens, so parliamentary tradition gives Clark the first chance to form a government.<\/p>\n

Prof. Hamish Telford, who teaches political science at the University of the Fraser Valley, explained that the NDP-Green collaboration was far from a done deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because they have an agreement today to govern doesn’t mean they will actually form a government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Telford pointed out how in 2008 the federal Liberals failed to form a government after approaching the governor general with a coalition agreement signed by the NDP, Bloc Quebecois and Green party to overthrow the Conservatives led by then-prime minister Stephen Harper.<\/p>\n

Telford said he expects Clark to test her luck in the legislature with a throne speech rather than admit defeat, given the NDP and Greens only have one more seat between them than the Liberals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think … the NDP-Green majority is sufficiently great to cause her to concede,\u201d Telford said.<\/p>\n

After all, he said it would only take one New Demcocrat to miss the ferry to Vancouver Island for the vote in the legislature in Victoria and \u201cthe Liberals could survive a confidence vote on the throne speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark would likely be defeated, Telford added. He predicted she would then approach Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon to ask for another election, at which point it would be up to Guichon to decide whether to send voters back to the polls or ask Horgan to form a government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know what she would do in those circumstances,\u201d Telford said.<\/p>\n

A minority NDP government propped up by the Greens would have \u201cthe narrowest of majorities,\u201d said Kathryn Harrison, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no room for error. There is no room for backbenchers to bolt. There’s no room for sickness,\u201d she said, adding that governments can lose a single vote any number of ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople misbehave. They get thrown out of caucus. They get sick or resign. Rebellious backbenchers threaten to vote against legislation and break party discipline,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cIt would be a challenge to govern for very long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minority governments have only occurred three times in B.C. history, most recently in 1952.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER \u2014 All eyes are on Premier Christy Clark after Monday’s announcement that British Columbia’s New Democrats have reached an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":101888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,16,17],"tags":[1000],"class_list":["post-104530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news","category-news-w","tag-christy-clark","mauthors-geordon-omand","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}