Greens tout NDP partnership despite year of bickering

It’s been a little over a year since B.C. Green party leader Andrew Weaver signed that minority-government agreement with Premier John Horgan.

It hasn’t exactly been a year of blissful, lovey-dovey relations. Most of the time Weaver seems to be complaining about something Horgan did. Or failed to do.

Consider Weaver’s outrage over the NDP government’s continuing failure to deliver Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing services.

“Absolutely outrageous,” Weaver complained after the government announced yet another delay in what he characterized as a blatant cave-in to the taxi industry.

Last month, Weaver tweeted out pictures of long lineups of frustrated people waiting for taxis at Vancouver International Airport.

Just one problem: There were no taxis to take anybody anywhere in a city crying out for transportation alternatives that are available in every other major city on the continent.

“This is what the NDP delay on ride-sharing is leading to,” Weaver said. “This is sending an embarrassing message to the world.”

At around the same time, Weaver was upset with the NDP’s union-only rules for construction of a new Pattullo Bridge.

“Very troubling,” Weaver said. “To say it must be union, it strikes of paying back political favours.”

Remember when he threatened to bring the whole NDP government crashing down over Horgan’s support of liquefied natural gas development?

“That’s eight-to-10 megatonnes of additional greenhouse gas emissions,” fumed Weaver, a climate-change scientist.

What would happen to the NDP government if they dared to build any LNG plants?

“They’re gone,” Weaver said bluntly.

This only scratches the surface of Weaver’s long list of gripes and complaints after a year of NDP government.

But, this Wednesday night, Weaver and his Green party colleagues are holding a town hall meeting in Victoria to celebrate all the positive things they’ve done with the NDP.

“Join us for a community event to talk about what we have accomplished in the past year and what is in store for the coming year,” the online invitation reads.

I suspect this is the start of a more positive tone from Weaver and the NDP in advance of this fall’s referendum on electoral reform.

The Greens and New Democrats are both urging voters to say “Yes” to a proportional representation voting system that would likely produce more minority governments.

It would not look great for the Greens and New Democrats to be at each other’s throats at the same time they’re trying to convince people to support a voting system that could keep them in power.

In the meantime, forces opposed to proportional representation have gone to court in a bid to stop the referendum from going forward.

My predictions: The court case will fail. The mail-in referendum will proceed this October and November. And Weaver will cool down his attacks on the NDP as both sides push for a referendum win.