Clark pressed on record; Weaver and Horgan spar
NDP leader questions if Greens ‘in this to win’ during TV debate
B.C.’s party leaders took to the airwaves Wednesday for a TV debate that saw most of the fireworks fly between the B.C. NDP and Green leaders.
Liberal Leader Christy Clark, NDP Leader John Horgan and Green Leader Andrew Weaver spent 90 minutes debating the issues and each other with moderator Jennifer Burke in a broadcast feed carried by the province’s major TV networks.
But it was Weaver and Horgan who had the testiest exchanges, including Horgan questioning why Weaver voted in support of two previous Liberal budgets and why anyone should bother to vote Green.
“Are the Greens really in this to win this is or are they in this to keep the B.C. Liberals in power?” Horgan asked.
Weaver replied: “What is a bit rich is for you to have the audacity to criticize my voting record, when I sat in the legislature for four years and for four years each and every one of your MLAs voted collectively on every issue even if it was fundamentally against what they believe in.
“I recognize as a career politician you know nothing but saying no and being antagonistic to the B.C. Liberals,” he added.
Several times, the two leaders talked over each other to the point that their arguments were largely inaudible.
Twice during the evening, Weaver appeared to taunt Horgan for his aggressive approach in last week’s radio debate, in which some felt
Horgan lost his temper. Weaver defended that approach after the debate, saying that while it may have got heated he felt that his comments centred mainly on the issues.
Burke asked Horgan a pointed question about whether he has an anger problem, which Horgan brushed aside as simply his passionate response to the Liberal government’s failures.
Horgan and Weaver also clashed over Medical Services Plan premiums and whether the NDP would fold the $1.6-billion cost into income tax increases.
Clark said voters should support her because of the province’s strong economy, and because she’d provide stable leadership during a time in which U.S. President Donald Trump is penalizing Canada and B.C.
“In the face of rising protectionism in the United States, the question in this election is, which leader has the skills to lead us in a time of uncertainty?” she said. “Which of us will protect and preserve jobs for British Columbians?”
After the debate, she said she was trying to highlight how she is calm and reasonable compared with her opponents. “You don’t negotiate trade deals with the Americans by losing your temper,” she said, in another veiled reference to Horgan.
But Clark found her record under sharp attack on the issues of affordable housing, education and liquefied natural gas.
Horgan accused her of negligence and inaction in intervening in the Metro Vancouver housing market, during which time average prices increased $600,000. He promoted his plan to offer a $400 annual renters grant, which Clark mocked for amounting to only $1 a day.
“Why did you wait so long? Was it because your rich developers were making a bundle, or was it you just didn’t care about families being able to buy homes in Metro Vancouver?” Horgan asked.
Clark said she acted cautiously in introducing a 15 per cent foreign buyer’s tax to make sure the action didn’t devalue the price of people’s homes.
“Most of us want our kids to own their own home,” she said. “They don’t want the government and John Horgan as their landlord.”
On the economy, Horgan was asked if he has outlined all of the potential tax increases voters might see in his first term in office. He didn’t answer, instead repeating that B.C. Hydro, ICBC, MSP and other hikes have made life less affordable under the Liberals.
Both Clark and Horgan traded jabs over political donations, Clark for accepting corporate cash and Horgan for accepting union donations. But neither scored any new points. Weaver inserted himself as the only party that refuses corporate and union donations and attacked Horgan for a “do as I say, not as I do” attitude.
At one point, Clark tried to argue that Horgan has failed to raise softwood as an issue in the legislature, but was shut down by a quick retort from Horgan that she so rarely attends legislative proceedings she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
Horgan took Clark to task over her government’s defeat at the Supreme Court of Canada on stripping teachers of bargaining rights, asking if she’d apologize to the decade of students shortchanged by government’s fight with teachers.
Clark did not, but argued B.C. has some of the best education outcomes in the world.
“You were dragged kicking and screaming to that position,” Horgan said.
Unsurprisingly, each leader’s party declared victory after the debate ended. Weaver told reporters he’s not worried about continued attacks by the NDP that a vote for the Greens will simply elect the Liberals.
“It’s a pretty shallow argument and it’s actually an offensive argument,” he said.
Horgan ended the debate with a call to arms for those who oppose the Liberals.
“I think it’s time the B.C. Liberal neglect ends,” he said. “Help is on the way.”
Clark said she was pleased by the debate, despite the “yelling and spending going on by the gentlemen in the room.”
She reiterated that in the era of Trump she is the province’s best bet, and a strong economy lifts the most vulnerable, too.
The election is May 9.