I haven’t conducted the scientific experiment, but I suspect that when you mix 41 parts NDP orange and three parts Green, you get something muddy-coloured.
Rather like your new provincial government plan.
It is an axiom of negotiation that you are never in a stronger position than when you are at the bargaining table. Which means that Andrew Weaver, the Green leader, will never be more powerful than he was the last two weeks.
Moreover, the suddenly cordial and collegial tone of his relationship with NDP Leader John Horgan may never be happier, unless Weaver is inherently submissive and subservient – neither quality being immediately apparent. The two had a handful of great dinner dates and a fabulous weekend fling, and at their pre-nup signing ceremony they could barely contain their hormones, but it is challenging to see how their GreeNDP marriage might endure. Their 10-page pact is riddled with flaccid ambiguities posing as firm plans, and before long they will be easy objects for political criticism and public cynicism. Supporters of the covenant will have buyer’s remorse.
Look past their aim of “making democracy work for people” (presuming that it had been working for robots or animals to this point) or how their transit initiatives will “get people home faster” (just don’t expect to get to work or a night on the town swifter).
No, let’s set aside the snark. There are dozens of serious questions and few answers in a document purporting sufficient value to topple one government and sustain another.
Here are the first 10 that I could conjure:
1) How meaningful is the “meaningful consultation” the NDP promises on budgets, policies and appointments? The document claims there is a dispute resolution process, but it is actually a dispute discussion process. Score one for the NDP.
2) What will be done on the biggest public concern of housing affordability? It took until the last line of the document – Section 3, Part 4d, just before the signatures – for the parties to say they will build more and curtail speculation and fraud. No one could read this single sentence as anything other than an ill-thought after thought.
3) Why wasn’t comprehensive child care – the largest economic driver these parties could have created – front and centre?
4) What exactly is “every tool available” to stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion? The prime minister is adamant it’s happening, as is the “mark my words” Albertan premier. What they should have said was the government will use every means to harm the company and inhibit the economic viability of the project through bureaucratic and legalistic delays.
5) What chance does the Site C hydroelectric project have when the BC Utilities Commission review will be conducted “in the context of the current supply and demand conditions prevailing in the B.C. market?” Stop pretending you won’t kill it. Score one for the Greens.
6) What happens to legal reform in the province? The pact is on finances and pertains to confidence and supply votes. It is silent on law.
7) What is the plan to reduce or eliminate Medical Services Plan premiums?
8) How will you combat the dark money between campaigns and not just curtail the donations to fuel them? Certainly, big money in politics is spent after the writ drops. But even bigger money builds machinery between elections, and the proposals do little or nothing on that large matter.
9) Why commit to only “introduce” legislation and not “pass” it on campaign financing, lobbyist reform and the creation of the proportional representation referendum, if you’re so certain of their necessity?
10) What happened to the renters’ rebate? The NDP wanted to give $400 annually to renters; the Greens laughed at it. The document is silent on it. Is the dollar-a-day idea done for?
The lingering premier, Christy Clark, unconvincingly mustered enthusiasm last week about her imminent role as Opposition leader, but she may want to stick around to play her part in the follies. I’m sure she has even better questions than I do.
Kirk LaPointe is Business in Vancouver’s vice-president of audience and business development.
