Liberal leader Christy Clark remains B.C.’s premier as recounts loom and election officials ready to count absentee ballots following the May 9 election that resulted in a minority government.
Current vote totals put the Liberals with 43 MLAs, the NDP with 41 MLAs and the Green Party with 3 MLAs.
NDP leader John Horgan, meanwhile, is holding out hope that he will be premier once all ballots are counted, and recounted, by May 24.
He told media May 10 that he spoke with Green Party leader Andrew Weaver on election night and that the two “talked about how we agree that the B.C. Liberals have failed British Columbians in a range of issues.”
Horgan said the NDP and the Green Pary share many concerns and that his focus is on issues such as childcare, healthcare, education and housing.
The NDP and the Green Party both campaigned on changing B.C.’s voting system, perhaps to a form of proportional representation or to a single-transferable-ballot system if that is what a panel recommends.
Horgan said that the NDP and the Green Party can work on that initiative in the legislature.
And while Weaver said during the campaign that Horgan exploded in anger during some of their conversations, Horgan said that he does not remember such outbursts.
“I was the house leader for the opposition and we worked together on making sure he got access in the legislature,” Horgan said. “That’s the back and forth discussions that we would have had. I never would have characterized them as anything other than combative if necessary and cordial if required.”
