BC Politics Update: Final Edition... Maybe

I posted and ran last Thursday because of my concert tickets but I wish I could have stayed home and kept on top of all the happenings because it ended up being an incredible day for BC politics.

But first, PMJ was fantastic and the whole evening was so much fun. The highlight for me was Maiya Sykes singing Radiohead's Creep. I wish I had a recording of her singing it because it was breathtaking. Instead, here's her singing Don't Look Back in Anger.

But the more important news: BC FINALLY HAS A GOVERNMENT! We went to the polls on May 9th and a short 51 days later, we had our results.

As expected, the Throne Speech from Christy Clark promised the moon, forcing the NDP and Green party to vote against things they plan to do as part of their platforms to put their power-sharing plan in motion.

As I've previously mentioned, this is a very calculated move by the Liberals as it means that they already have their next election platform. The worst part? It's working! Reading the comments on a few of the articles Thursday night - I know, reading comments? What was I thinking? - there were more than a few that mentioned "but the Throne Speech promised so many things, what were the NDP/Greens thinking?" Even if the NDP/Greens had decided not to vote against the Throne Speech, the Liberals-in-SoCreds-clothing HAD NO INTENTION OF EVER FOLLOWING THROUGH ON THE PROMISES IN THE THRONE SPEECH!!

This is a government that removed so much funding from the education budget that the Supreme Court of Canada found them in breach of contract and mandated that they restore funding retroactively. Think really hard for one freaking minute: it took a court-order for the Liberals to even come close to properly funding public education. Do you really think this is a government that is going to increase funding to everything else that they've cut over the last 16 years?

By losing the confidence vote, Clark had shown that she did not have the support of the government. She went to Government House Thursday night to tender her resignation to our Lieutenant-Governor, Judith Guichon. Upon tendering her resignation, there were two things that could happen: the LG accepts the NDP/Green proposal for power-sharing or she could call another election. We know that when asked for her opinion, despite saying she wouldn't advise on it, Clark told the LG she should call another election because of course she did.

Thankfully, Guichon didn't follow Clark's recommendation and called John Horgan to Government House that same night. BC now has an NDP minority government with Green support.

This is uncharted territory for BC politics. We've never had a minority or coalition government in BC. It could be a great success or we could be heading to another election in a few months times.

On the upside, this whole fiasco gave us one of the greatest tweets ever.

Unconfirmed reports say BC Social Credit Party will be seeking a name change yet again #bcpoli

— BCFerrys (@BCFerrys) June 30, 2017

Update on BC Politics... AGAIN!

Christy Clark has officially lost leadership of the BC government after losing a confidence vote.

So many thoughts but I have to get ready for PMJ so for now...

Sunday Sundries

1. We're in the middle of a big project at work right now, so it might be Sunday-only posts for the next three weeks.

Me last Friday... and probably every day this week.

2. Black Raven Armoury currently has their Wonder Woman pattern available for free. You can sign up for it here.

3. The UK election was... interesting. To ensure she maintains the balance of power, Theresa May - who wants to take a harder stance on terrorists - has made a deal with a political party that once funded terrorists. I will turn to one of my favourite satire sites, The Ulster Fry, for my take on it.

Also from The Ulster Fry.

4. Speaking of elections, the end is in sight for the BC Election. Christy Clark has called parliament for June 22nd. The big fight will be who gives up an MP to be Speaker of the House. Then it's the Throne Speech and, hopefully, Christy's goodbye.

5. I finished Season Five of "House of Cards". I can't believe how they ended it. I get having a cliffhanger, but they had, like, eight. AHH!!! (Also, I love Michael Kelly. This link contains spoilers.) There was one story that felt like it didn't go anywhere this season, but it also seemed like it could be cause plenty of problems in a future season so...

6. Part of the Alberta contingent was visiting this weekend which means day drinking. Had a few trips down memory lane in the past 24 hours. We'll add Alberta to the places I'm feeling nostalgic for this week.

Looking at the Sweetgrass Hills from Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park.

BC Politics: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Today, Christy Clark showed that she would not go quietly.

It's her right, and the Liberals are spinning it as 'not allowing political deals to happen behind closed doors', but it reeks of just prolonging their power. We are now forced to wait until the next time the House of Commons convenes which will be Christy Clark calls for it. 

I don't believe she'd delay the next session just out of spite, but the Liberals are still in power. I do believe she and her party will promise the moon in the Throne Speech and present a generous budget they have no intention of passing because the NDP and Greens have to vote against it to take over.

Why would they do this? Because then, come the next election, they have their campaign platform: we wanted to give you this but NDP/Green denied it! THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU GIVE IT TO US OVER THE LAST SIXTEEN YEARS?!?!?

A power-sharing deal has been made. The Liberals, despite winning the most seats, have lost this election and they know it. Now, they're just posturing for their comeback.

At this point, I'm just so done with them.

The Neverending Saga of Canadian Politics: BC Edition

Twenty days after the province went to the polling stations, we have a government.

Sort of.

After all the ballots were counted, including a few recounts, the final standing was:

• Liberals: 43
• NDP: 41
• Green Party: 3

Majority in BC is 44 seats. Today, the NDP and Greens announced a power-sharing arrangement for the next four years. That gives them the required 44 seats needed for a majority.

But...

You knew there had to be a 'but', right?

But Christy Clark is still Premier.

No party formed a majority on their own, so she remained Premier after the election. Now, she will remain Premier until she either steps aside or loses a confidence vote.

(For those who don't live in a political system with confidence votes, the Wikipedia page. tl;dr: a member of parliament can call a motion of no confidence - certain bills, such as the budget, are automatically confidence votes - and the members of the house vote. A non-confidence means the Prime Minister or Premier loses their position. I'm looking at you, Joe Clark.)

With today's announcement, Christy's days are numbered. First day of parliament, a motion of non confidence will be called and she won't have the votes to stay in office.

And that's how John Horgan became Premier of BC... eventually.

Who knew BC politics would be so entertaining?

And the Winner is...

No one!

Kind of.

The Liberals have potentially won a minority government with 43 seats. Christy Clark and her dead eyes petition the Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Judith Guichon, that she has the support to govern. At that point, it depends on if the NDP and Greens block this petition. If they do then BC is heading back to the polls within a few months. If they don't, then the Liberals officially form BC's first minority government.

That's right. Over 100 hundred years of BC politics and this may be our first minority government. 

Or, if Christy wants to she can't be blocked, then the Liberals could form a coalition with the Greens and have a majority government. 

There are still a couple of ridings which were very close - one riding was one by 9 votes! - and will undoubtedly be recount to verify the first count. We may see a seat or two shift from one party to another in the next few days or weeks which could affect the choice Christy makes.

It is definitely an interesting time in BC politics.

You've now made it through two political posts so as a reward, here's some Monty Python.

We Have a T.B.D. Government!

As I type this, the current BC election results show this:

If this projection holds true, BC technically won't have a government Wednesday morning. Although that would still be better than the government we had prior to this election so... cup half full?

Most people outside of BC might not understand why I dislike our provincial Liberals - but Trudeau's a Liberal!! - but they are not Liberals. They are Socreds in Liberal colours. After Bill Vander Zalm had to resign due to a conflict of interest (and an ensuing scandal surrounding it), the Socreds were all but decimated in our 1991 election. After that, many of their members moved to the Liberals and then dragged the Liberal party into the right-wing.

Our current Liberal party, which held a majority government so they stood unopposed, has cut funding to education while increasing the amount of that education money that is supposed to go towards private schools, cut funding to our health system while increasing the monthly insurance payments (the payments themselves don't actually go into the healthcare budget, they go into the general budget for the current government to dole out however they see fit), they have awarded contracts to their biggest party donors, and the list goes on. Also, Christie Clark has dead eyes and they freak me out.

What does this mean for these election results? Well, it comes down to who woos the Green party first and forms a coalition. Based on previous comments made by the leader of the Green party, that means it is highly likely we'll have a Liberal-Green coalition.

What does that mean for the future of BC? In the words of Jimmy Rabbitte from 'the Commitments', "I'm fucked if I know, Terry."

I had such a crush on Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) when I was young.

EDIT: I checked the result before I posted and it hadn't change in the projection. I posted. Then I checked and now it's showing a Liberal minority government. I'm off to bed now so if it changes again... you'll just have to wait for tomorrow's post.

Election Distraction

British Columbia heads to the polls Tuesday... unless they voted early, like me... and normally I'd spend the evening glued to the social medias and cable news as the results come in. This year, however, I'm doing something different: I'm going to the movies.

Specifically, I'm going to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

I'd like to say that I knew this would be a more enjoyable way to spend the day and that's why I planned this, but apparently I made these plans and then completely forgot about them. In fact, I still don't remember making them but my friend insists that we did. Being the person who usually has to remind other people about our plans, it was a nice turn of events.

Seriously. No memory of making these plans.

None.

Still not entirely convinced my friend isn't just making it all up.

At any rate, it will be a nice distraction from the politics going on given that there will be nothing I can do about the outcome of the election at that point. From everything I've read, it will be a worthwhile distraction.

Sunday Sundries

This post is going to be a round of various ideas/links/stuff that don't really deserve their own post.

1. Congratulations to France for not electing a nazi. Okay, not a nazi, but a very, very, very, very right-wing politician.

 2. In less happy news, Venezuela is a mess. I know that it is tearing my Venezuelan friends apart not being there to support the protesters but on the other hand, it means that there are people outside of Venezuela to make sure the videos and pictures are shared with a larger audience. If you're unsure about why this is happening, this video is a good starting point.

3. I have been working my way through all of the Star Treks over the past few years. On Friday, I started season 7 of Voyager. I'm so close to finishing. It will be oddly bittersweet when I do. Now what am I going to do on Friday nights when I have a long week? On the upside, it will help me level up in my fake World of Nerdcraft.

4. BC saw it's highest turnout of advance voters in our current election. I was one of the advance voters and it took me all of 10 minutes to walk to the polling station, cast my ballot and walk home. I love advance voting because a) if something happens and I can't go when I planned then I can still go on Election Day, and b) the wait lines are almost non-existent. 

5. I was telling a friend about the movie, What We Did On Our Summer Holiday, and was reminded of this scene.

A lovely sentiment I think we would all do well to remember as we move through life.