It’s been a suspenseful and dramatic couple of months in provincial politics.
We’ve seen many curse the fact that, in B.C., we now have a viable third political party. We disagree heartily with the notion that a two-party system, guaranteed to always produce a majority one way of the other, is a superior way to go.
Sure, you can look at it as the Green Party upsetting the apple cart, but we think it more accurately reflects the views of B.C. residents. And forces the government to more accurately reflect more of the people’s wishes when it comes to setting policy.
Many seem to be under the impression that a minority government can’t work long term. Again, we heartily disagree. It works very well in many places. What it means is that the politicians have to talk to each other and, gasp, compromise.
It won’t work if a party acts as if they are a majority and attempts to ram through their agenda without change.
The last month or so has been entertaining from a viewer standpoint.
Christy Clark certainly did everything in her power to make it as difficult as possible for the other parties to oust her without looking bad.
She put forward an agenda filled with promises culled from the NDP and Green Party platforms.
Of course it was all so much political theatre, and one could be forgiven for doubting whether Clark would have gone through with any of her promises, as the Liberals had previously been vehemently opposed to many of them. We highly doubt the Liberals will be voting for those same proposals when they inevitably come up again under the new government.
But that’s all in the rear view.
What we hope for now is diligence from all of the elected MLAs to get some things done. It takes commitment to the electors to make a minority government work. Nobody wants another election.
