BC Election - May 9th, 2017

[rubecube]

Update as of 10 AM this morning has the NDP leading in Courtenay/Comox by 101 votes.

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Update as of 10 AM this morning has the NDP leading in Courtenay/Comox by 101 votes.

There are still 900 votes left to be counted here. I wish they would have just pulled an all nighter and gotten this done. It's tough to guess where the remaining votes will go, but the absentee ballots have been dominated by the NDP across the province. They are now 1,723 votes behind the Liberals for the popular vote.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by squiggs96

There are still 900 votes left to be counted here. I wish they would have just pulled an all nighter and gotten this done. It's tough to guess where the remaining votes will go, but the absentee ballots have been dominated by the NDP across the province. They are now 1,723 votes behind the Liberals for the popular vote.

People would have bitched about taxpayer dollars being wasted on overtime for Elections BC workers if they had done that.

[rubecube]

12 PM update: NDP leads in Courtenay/Comow by 148.

Overall popular vote is now BC LIBs 40.36%, BC NDP 40.28%.

[opendoor]

Yeah, for whatever reason absentee ballots have tended to skew towards the NDP and Greens the last few elections so NDP increasing their lead in Courtenay-Comox isn't particularly surprising.

[Jacks]

oooohhh, this is getting interesting now.
B.C. Greens agree to support NDP in minority legislature
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ticle35147472/

B.C.’s Green Party has reached an agreement with the New Democrats to topple the government of Premier Christy Clark.
The agreement, which will be announced at 2 p.m. PT, would see the Greens and New Democrats use their combined one-seat majority in the legislature to bring down the BC Liberals.
The announcement ends weeks of negotiations between the Greens and both parties to either prop up the Liberals or give the New Democrats the power to form government after 16 years in Opposition.
The May 9 election gave the Liberals just 43 seats in the House. The NDP have 41 seats and the Greens have three.

They will vote non confidence. Clark will ask for a new election and will certainly be denied. They'll need to have every member in attendance every day to avoid the house falling again.

[Resolute 14]

Yeah, BC's going to be going to the polls within six months, regardless.

Amusingly, Sun Media's tokent lefty, Warren Kinsella, is calling this "dirty backroom politics" because they "can't win the old fashioned way". That's quite the hot take.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Jacks

oooohhh, this is getting interesting now.
B.C. Greens agree to support NDP in minority legislature
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ticle35147472/

They will vote non confidence. Clark will ask for a new election and will certainly be denied. They'll need to have every member in attendance every day to avoid the house falling again.

I'm assuming that they'll last long enough to get to the budget.
.


I would expect that there will be an election within the next 3 months.

A NDP/Green coalition would be a disaster for Alberta interests

[Jacks]

If the NDP elect one of their own as speaker he/she may have to vote to break a tie on everything.

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I'm assuming that they'll last long enough to get to the budget.

As soon as they recall the legislature they can be defeated on the Throne Speech.

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I would expect that there will be an election within the next 3 months.

If there was ever a case for the Lt. Gov denying a new election this would be it. The 2nd place party having almost as many seats as the winning party, all they have to do is show stable support from the Greens and there is no reason to deny them the chance to govern. If they put a Green in cabinet that should do it.

I agree it will be a disaster for us. Might be a nightmare for the feds too, they may be forced to push through pipelines without the NDP/Green governments agreement.

[Weitz]

Greens grasping at their only chance of ever having power, and a pipeline they will try and shut down.

Not surprising.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Amusingly, Sun Media's tokent lefty, Warren Kinsella, is calling this "dirty backroom politics" because they "can't win the old fashioned way". That's quite the hot take.

Oh, Warren Kinsella isn't a lefty... not really. He's only a liberal when someone is paying him to be a liberal. He's the Alan Colmes of the Canadian media scene.

It is backroom politics but I wouldn't call it dirty. I think this is a bad move on the part of the Greens (unless they got proportional representation out of it). Don't they compete more with the NDP then they do with the provincial Liberals? If the NDP do a good job then folk lose incentive to support the Greens over them, if they do a poor job then they'll have to wear it alongside them. Strikes me as a no win situation.

[Weitz]

Also I think its silly that 2 parties that can't form a minority or majority government can unite to usurp power. That doesn't seem like democracy to me.

[Manhattanboy]

Damn I hate this country (i.e. certain segments of the population) sometimes.

We have all the resources in the world to provide prosperity to our children and generations to come, but nope.

Maybe I am out of touch. With every passing day it is quickly becoming apparent I have less in common with my fellow Canadians.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Also I think its silly that 2 parties that can't form a minority or majority government can unite to usurp power. That doesn't seem like democracy to me.

Well politicians regularly go back on campaign promises that get them elected so the entire democratic process has always been somewhat broken.

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Yeah, BC's going to be going to the polls within six months, regardless.

Amusingly, Sun Media's tokent lefty, Warren Kinsella, is calling this "dirty backroom politics" because they "can't win the old fashioned way". That's quite the hot take.

As a person who voted for the Liberals, I don't understand that. Kinsella is saying that because the Liberals won the most seats, they should get to govern. If this was a majority, I'd agree. Since it's a minority I think other things need to come into play. If they NDP and Greens form a coalition, they have 44 seats to the Liberals 43 seats. That's a majority of the seats, and 57% of the popular vote. I don't get how that can be seen as dirty.

Now if the Liberals had 40 seats, and a coalition between 2 parties didn't beat those 40 seats, or still was a minority, then I think the Liberals should still have the power. This is a situation if there were some independents and/or other parties besides the main three parties from this year.

The Liberals had the same opportunity to form a coalition with the Greens. With 46 seats, they could have given the greens a cabinet position, named one of their own the speaker, and never had a problem with any vote, assuming everyone showed up.

I do not think I'll enjoy a government run by the NDP and Greens, but there are many other people that voted to not have a Liberal run government. I think the voting process was fair, and the results should obviously stand. I hope the coalition doesn't compromise the province during their time in power. I hope the Liberals work hard in the next four years, and give a better platform for 2021. This assumes there is no early election.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Also I think its silly that 2 parties that can't form a minority or majority government can unite to usurp power. That doesn't seem like democracy to me.

Why not? Happens in parliamentary governments all over the world. We don't elect parties, we elect representatives. The representatives choose the shape of the government. There are very few if any NDP or Green voters who are upset with this move.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Also I think its silly that 2 parties that can't form a minority or majority government can unite to usurp power. That doesn't seem like democracy to me.

Usurp?

u·surp
verb

-take (a position of power or importance) illegally or by force.
-take the place of (someone in a position of power) illegally: supplant.
-encroach or infringe upon (someone's rights).

Slow your roll there. Combined they have 44 seats which is precisely the number that they'll need. Parliamentary democracy is defined entirely by who can command the confidence of the legislative house.

[Weitz]

It seems counterintuitive that 2 groups of people that hold such different ideals that they belong to 2 different parties join forces to have power.

But seems par for the course in government.

Again, remember, they are only joining together to have power. That doesn't seem right to me.

[Tinordi]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Also I think its silly that 2 parties that can't form a minority or majority government can unite to usurp power. That doesn't seem like democracy to me.

Wha?

The two parties just did form a minority government.