{"id":212691,"date":"2019-05-03T22:37:41","date_gmt":"2019-05-04T02:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=212691"},"modified":"2019-05-03T22:37:41","modified_gmt":"2019-05-04T02:37:41","slug":"post-election-honeymoon-may-be-over-for-p-e-i-s-convivial-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/03\/post-election-honeymoon-may-be-over-for-p-e-i-s-convivial-rivals\/","title":{"rendered":"Post election honeymoon may be over for P.E.I.’s convivial rivals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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King even mused about the possibility of including other parties in his cabinet. (File Photo<\/a>: Dennis King\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CHARLOTTETOWN \u2013 The unconventionally convivial relationship of the incoming P.E.I. premier and the Opposition Green party has hit an early rough patch.<\/p>\n

After an election campaign marked by mutual declarations of respect, Tory Leader Dennis King warmly hugged Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker in a CBC interview, and he has acknowledged \u201cco-operation and collaboration\u201d would be key to his government’s future.<\/p>\n

King even mused about the possibility of including other parties in his cabinet.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, he succeeded in receiving the confidence of the lieutenant-governor to form a minority government.<\/p>\n

But in an interview Friday, Bevan-Baker said he’s concerned that King went to the lieutenant-governor without first having a written agreement of support from either of the opposition parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think things happened in the wrong order as far as I’m concerned,\u201d said the Green leader.<\/p>\n

Bevan-Baker says it’s too soon for him to say that his party is \u201cabsolutely willing\u201d to support the new Tory government in the legislature.<\/p>\n

The Tories won 12 seats in the April 23 election, while the Green Party won eight and the Liberals six, creating the first minority outcome in a P.E.I. election since 1890.<\/p>\n

A byelection is to occur in Charlottetown-Hillsborough Park following the deaths of Green party candidate, Josh Underhay, and his young son in a boating mishap on the Hillsborough River last month.<\/p>\n

The Green leader said if King were to seek his party’s ongoing support to continue in power, the Greens would seek a so-called supply and confidence agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would be looking for a fairly formal written agreement, akin to the supply and confidence agreement that exists between the NDP government in British Columbia and the Green party there,\u201d said Bevan-Baker.<\/p>\n

The British Columbia agreement’s wording says it \u201csets out a new relationship between the two parties, founded on the principle of ‘good faith and no surprises.\u201d’<\/p>\n

Bevan-Baker argues that this kind of agreement is superior to having a situation where the Conservatives must seek support on an issue-by-issue basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe potential for things to be taken into the backrooms and for horse trading to occur there, that definition of collaboration is not what I’m talking about here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bevan-Baker also is now saying he’s \u201ccool\u201d to the idea of having one of his party’s legislators in a multi-party Tory cabinet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are complexities and awkwardnesses that get introduced into governance if we go with that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The leader said that if an opposition party accepts such a position, it is then bound by cabinet confidentiality and solidarity, requirements that may hinder the opposition parties’ ability to hold the Tories to account.<\/p>\n

No spokesperson for the Liberal party replied to several emails sent to party officials. The premier-designate’s aides also didn’t respond to emails seeking further comment.<\/p>\n

Phillipe Lagasse, an expert on the Westminster parliamentary system, said the distancing between the Greens and the Tories shouldn’t come as a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt (entering cabinet) would complicate their life as the official Opposition,\u201d said the Carleton University political scientist in an interview.<\/p>\n

As far as the lack of a formal agreement among the parties, Lagasse said that is not unusual in Canadian minority governments.<\/p>\n

He said while the promises of toned-down rhetoric by the Island politicians may be commendable, the role of the opposition in a parliamentary system is primarily to critique the party in power.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur system works best when there’s a check on the executive and that check has to come from an opposition party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTETOWN \u2013 The unconventionally convivial relationship of the incoming P.E.I. premier and the Opposition Green party has hit an early …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":212692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-michael-tutton","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212691","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212693,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212691\/revisions\/212693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}