By appointing attorney general David Eby as the government’s point man for the upcoming referendum on proportional representation, Premier John Horgan may have unwittingly dealt a fatal blow to his own fragile minority government.
The attorney general plays a unique role in our system of government. As the title suggests, the position is to essentially act as the lawyer on behalf of the provincial government. When things go wrong, or the government is challenged on a point of law, it is the attorney general who steps in defense of the province.
But Horgan has now forced Eby out on a limb. An outspoken supporter of proportional representation, Eby is somehow supposed to remain neutral during the referendum campaign, despite the fact that he has designed all the rules and is responsible for their enforcement.
The vote has yet to take place through a mail-in ballot that begins Oct. 22 and end Nov. 30. The legitimacy of the referendum has already been challenged in court and the vote hasn’t even taken place.
The real sticking point is the fact that Eby did not set a minimum threshold for voter participation. This is a risky proposition because even if less than 10 percent of all eligible voters decide to take part in the referendum, Eby will still consider the result as valid.
Consider the sticky situation Prince Edward Island faced when that province held a referendum on proportional representation in 2016. The referendum passed in favour of proportional representation but the results had to be declared invalid because less than 36 per cent of voters bothered to participate.
The referendum result in PEI in effect sets a precedent in our Canadian parliamentary system. If anything, the two-part referendum question in B.C. is far more complicated than PEI.
If the final results of the referendum results challenged in B.C., we won’t have a neutral attorney general to fall back on. This will likely put Eby and Horgan between a rock and a hard place.
Donna Barnett is the Liberal MLA for the Cariboo-Chilcotin.
