I’m spoken for: Plecas rejects Speaker’s job — for third time
Liberal MLA under pressure as legislature totters on knife’s edge
Why would the NDP-Green alliance want a Liberal to be Speaker? Because it would prevent them from having to fill the job themselves, giving them a crucial voting cushion in the legislature.
The Speaker acts as the non-partisan referee of the legislature and doesn’t vote, except to break a tie. If an NDP or Green MLA becomes the Speaker, there could be a series of 43-43 votes in a deadlocked legislature, with the “impartial” Speaker forced to vote with the new government every time to break tie after tie.
But, if the NDP-Greens could convince a Liberal to take the job, the alliance would have a two-vote cushion: 44 to 42, with no need for the Speaker to get involved. It’s obvious why the NDP-Greens would want a Liberal Speaker. And equally obvious why the Liberals wouldn’t want to provide one.
But Plecas says that didn’t stop them from trying.
“I was first asked by Mike Farnworth if I would consider being Speaker,” Plecas told me, referring to the NDP House leader. “It was a very causal in-person conversation. Just to be sure that he didn’t misinterpret my intention, I followed up later with a phone call to assure him I would never accept an offer to be Speaker without the full blessing of the Liberal caucus.”
With no such blessing on offer, Plecas thought that would be the last he would hear from the NDP. But Farnworth approached him again about the job, which comes with a $52,000-a-year bonus on top of a $105,000 base salary, a stately office, large staff and lots of travel perks.
“I received a phone call from Mike Farnworth,” Plecas said. “He said, ‘I know we have talked about this before, but I am now calling to ask you formally if you would be willing to have your name put forward for Speaker.’ Again, I said, ‘Never.’ ”
The Greens tried to woo him next, Plecas said.
“I received a call from a guy who introduced himself as someone I wouldn’t know,” Plecas said. “He said that he was calling on behalf of the Green party to ask if I would be willing to be Speaker. Again, I said that I would never accept an offer without the full blessing of caucus.”
Three offers, three rejections. Plecas said he doesn’t expect a fourth, but you never know.
Why would the NDP and Greens target Plecas? Maybe they figured he’s miffed at being passed over for cabinet, even though he’s a noted criminologist with a doctorate in education.
But it should be clear by now that the Liberals are simply not going to play along and help the NDP-Green alliance. That will force the NDP to cough up an MLA to be the Speaker, reducing the NDP-Green alliance to the smallest possible majority in the legislature.
Liberal House Leader Mike de Jong warned Weaver, the Green leader, that he would be taking a big risk by agreeing to prop up an NDP government.
“He is now discovering how inherently unstable it would be,” de Jong said.
All the parties seem to recognize that the legislature will be balancing on a knife’s edge, and Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon could decide another election is the only way to resolve it.
But first it’s time for the legislature to get back to business. It’ll likely be the final act of the Clark government, and the first act in a more unpredictable drama.