When we wrote our Morning Line for the British Columbia provincial election, we admitted the weakness to our assessment. Here it is four days after the election and we still know very little. Blame the Greens!
With the B.C. Liberals one short of a majority, the absentee ballots and the recounts will be critical.
The B.C. Green Party won three seats in an 87-seat legislature and you would swear they just won the Battle of the Bulge. Green leader Andrew Weaver is acting like he just won a lottery. If the ruling Liberals do not regain one more seat in the final counts, Weaver’s three Green Party MLAs will hold the balance of power.
That balance of power would be good to kill the Kinder Morgan Trans-mountain pipeline and take away the Liberal’s unfair business financing. B.C. could have a more honest and fair election next time around—probably in less than two years.
Mind you, it can go the other way too. The absentee ballots for the riding of Courtenay-Comox could easily change that 9-vote lead of the NDP candidate to a win for Christie Clark’s Liberals. And that would be the status quo all over again with a statistical majority for the Liberals.
That outcome would not be enough to make Clark’s friend Justin Trudeau happy. Getting the Kinder Morgan pipeline completed under those circumstances would be tenuous at best. A simple flu bug going through the government ranks in the Legislature could upset that apple cart.
The situation reminds us all that politics is a blood sport and there is no quarter given to those on their way out.
Mind you, B.C. voters need to learn something about strategic voting. Putting your resources where they will do the most good is a basic of war and politics.
We will all be watching as B.C. plays out this fascinating battle over the next couple weeks.
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Copyright 2017 © Peter Lowry
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