Green party is now a power broker in B.C.
Marks first time Greens have had political strength in North America
Andrew Weaver became famous in Canada as a climate scientist who denounced the world’s inaction on the warming atmosphere, and for his work with a U.N. panel that won a Nobel Prize with Vice President Al Gore.
Now Weaver, a former University of Victoria professor, has become a power broker in the British Columbia Legislature as the leader of the provincial Green party, in position to put his science-based theories into action.
When the results of the election for British Columbia’s provincial Legislature were finalized last week, neither of the two biggest parties — the centre-left New Democratic Party and the centre-right British Columbia Liberals — captured a majority of votes. That made Weaver a kingmaker and, for the first time, gave the Greens real political power in North America.
On Monday, Weaver announced that his party would support the New Democrats in a minority government in the Legislature.
“In the end we had to make a difficult decision,” Weaver said at a news conference Monday in Victoria with the New Democrats’ leader, John Horgan. “A decision that we felt was in the best interest of British Columbia today. That decision was for the B.C. Greens to work with the B.C. NDP to provide a stable minority government over the four-year term of this next session.”
Weaver and Horgan announced the details of their power-sharing agreement this week.
The deal does not mean they will automatically be able to form a government. Because no party won a majority of seats in the election this month, the provincial political system gives the first right to form a government to the current premier, Christy Clark, leader of the British Columbia Liberal Party, which won the largest number of votes.
Unless Clark can persuade opposition members of the Legislature to support her in a confidence vote, her government would fall.
Before Weaver made his deal with the New Democrats, he recognized the opportunity for the Greens to reshape politics in the province.
“We’re determined to show we can be productive holding the balance of power,” Weaver, 55, said in an interview last week. “A North American magnifying glass is going to be on ev- ery move we make. Being a climate scientist is good training for that kind of scrutiny.”
During the campaign, the Greens promised to strengthen environmental regulations, curb log exports, increase a tax on carbon and set an interim target of a 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2007 levels by 2030.
They also vowed to stop a pro- posed $20 billion liquefied natural gas export project f avoured by the former government, and to cancel a 715-mile expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain oil pipeline.
At the news conference Monday, Weaver said the parties had come to an agreement on the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which he said was “critical” to his decision, but he declined to give any details.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has already approved the pipeline expansion, and what any government i n British Columbia could do about that is not clear. Canada’s constitution gives the federal government authority over pipelines that cross provincial boundaries.
But in an open letter to The Vancouver Sun, several professors of constitutional law, led by David Robitaille of the University of Ottawa, argued that while provinces cannot stop pipelines from crossing their territory, they can “impose conditions on interprovincial companies to protect the environment and the safety and health of their communities.”
Weaver said in the interview that a new government had several ways to prevent the pipeline from moving forward, including by conducting a new provincial environmental assessment that could thwart the project.
“B.C. could step in and say it’s clearly flawed,” he said.
In any case, legal challenges brought by indigenous groups and others may put the project in limbo, making action by the province unnecessary.
Weaver, who entered politics only in 2013, when he won a seat in the provincial Legislature, will have to do some delicate manoeuvring when it comes to pushing other items on his party’s agenda. The New Democrats favour positions in line with the Greens, i ncluding the limiting of mining and forestry. They do, however, conditionally support the liquefied natural gas initiative. The economic importance of the forestry, pulp and paper industries to British Columbia may make it difficult, if not impossible, for the New Democrats to adopt any Green party position that might limit production in the interests of sustainability and the mitigation of climate change.
In addition to working with the New Democrats, Weaver will face pressure from his own party.
“Environmentalists will definitely be reminding the Green party where their base is,” said Emma Gilchrist, executive director of DeSmog Canada, an environmental journalism organization in British Columbia. “They will have a very slim majority. It’s not going to be easy to get things done.”
Still, Weaver’s bargaining position gives him leverage.
“There’s no question that Andrew Weaver is in an exceptional position of power,” said Maxwell A. Cameron, a political scientist who has studied minority governments. “Not only does he get to choose what party he supports and put it in office, to some extent he gets to determine its policies.”
In addition to pushing its environmental priorities, the Greens supports a ban on corporate and union political donations and a revamping of the province’s political system so that parties get legislative seats based on their proportion of the popular vote.