Upon his appointment, Premier Christy Clark quipped that Thomson should be cautious of the "eject button" on the Speaker's chair – reference to the expectation that his role as Speaker will not be long-lived.
Should the Liberal government fall on a non-confidence vote – expected later next week – it is expected he will resign.
If Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon allows the NDP to form a minority government, the NDP will need to find an MLA from their own ranks, the NDP or possibly even from the Liberals to stand as Speaker, although Liberal House Leader Mike de Jong has stated that isn’t likely to happen.
But it’s hard to predict how things will play out. B.C. is in uncharted waters, thanks to a rare hung parliament that makes for highly unpredictable outcomes. The Liberals have 43 seats, the NDP 41 and the Green Party 3.
Later today, starting at 2:15 p.m., Guichon will present the Liberal government’s throne speech. The NDP is expected to put forward an amendment. Debate on the throne speech won’t begin until next week.
The throne speech is expected to be voted down on June 29.
It will then be up to Guichon to decide whether or not the NDP, backed in a loose alliance with the Green Party, has the confidence of the house to form the government, or call another election.
Should the NDP form government, it will be a tenuous one, since the Greens and NDP will have but a single seat plurality. Should the Speaker come from NDP or Green ranks, it will mean he or she will need to break with the tradition of the Speaker's neutral arbiter role and cast votes on confidence motions, such as budgets, that would bring the NDP government down.
The Liberals have already previewed key platform policy reversals that are expected to be covered in today's throne speech, including:
• $1 billion in new spending to create 60,000 additional new child care spaces;
• a $100 per month increase to welfare rates;
• campaign finance reform;
• abandonment of the requirement for new TransLink levies to be put to a referendum; and
• $50 million in additional spending for new electric vehicle charging stations.
