The British Columbia NDP appears to have fended off the Conservative surge by a razor thin margin and will form the next provincial government, CBC News projects.
Whether the party forms a minority or majority government is still uncertain.
At least some good news today
Today, I met with Lieutenant Governor Janet Austin. She has asked me to form the next government. We will, and we will work hard every day to earn the trust you have placed in us.
David EbyRemoved by mod
Seeing that the Conservatives cannot form a government even if they win the last two seats is comforting after a stress filled week.
It is especially sweet that the NDP is still in the hunt for a majority.
Is it that bad for the greens to hold the balance of power, especially since they didn’t pick up the phone when the Conservative leader called?
I’m ignorant of BC politics so I don’t know if the greens are similar to the wacky pro-homeopathy anti-wifi federal green party.
I don’t think it is a bad thing for the Greens to hold the balance of power, in fact I enjoy minority Governments compared to Majority governments.
The Greens in BC are a lot different from the Federals in many ways, and I would vote for them if they had a chance in my riding, but at the end of the day I have always voted NDP with a nod to the Greens because the NDP has a more realistic and attainable platform.
As far as BC politics go, in a nut shell, it is a damn mess and always has been. haha
I dislike majority governments, but I also hate the idea of a party that wins 8% of the vote holding all the cards, and only the seats from 2 of the wealthiest areas in the province.
I agree on all fronts.
We need a better system in BC, and across Canada, that would see proportional representation in our Government.
That’s a really good answer. Thanks!
A nail-biter in the riding of Surrey-Guildford that is still too close to call currently has NDP incumbent Garry Begg leading Conservative Honveer Singe Randhawa by 18 votes.
The gap in Kelowna Centre is also now just 35 votes down from ~90 this morning.
Great news! But still no full conclusion yet.
Maybe now the NDP will more seriously consider ranked choice voting.
They should pass single transferable vote for ranked choice voting.
Absolutely. STV is the dream system. Proportional representation but with fully local representatives.
My favourite feature is that it holds politicians directly accountable to their constituents. If you don’t know much about politics, you can just vote by party, like regular ranked ballot. But if you know more, you can rank individual party members against each other in the same party. There are no “safe” seats party insiders can hold to assure being elected, keeping everyone accountable.
MMP either has party lists (and its potential for corruption from seeking higher list rank from the party), or systematically over-represents areas with more fractured political views. MMP also can lead to more fracturing of parties, since you only need a very small percentage of votes to get 1 seat, instead of 20%+ (locally) to qualify for a seat in STV. We don’t need single-issue fringe parties holding the deciding vote(s) to get to a majority coalition government able to force a snap election at any time!
We had what, three, referendums about it and people voted against it every time. It’s mind-boggling.
Voters were asked whether they would prefer to keep the existing first-past-the-post system or move to one of three forms of proportional representation.
I found the article from the last one, if anyone is interested: CBC article
I am beyond relieved that the NDP stayed in :D
Huzzah!
