Burn before reading: NDP, Greens reject Liberals’ bills, sight unseen
History-making defeats of two proposals sets stage for confidence vote
B.C.’s weakened Liberal government had its first taste of defeat after almost 16 years of majority dominance on Monday, setting the stage for the party’s ultimate ouster from office later this week.
The Liberals were outvoted on two bills in the legislature, including one that reversed the party’s long-standing opposition to banning corporate and union donations for political parties.
An alliance of NDP and Green MLAs, which hold a one-vote margin over the Liberals, rejected even debating the Liberal bills and instead called for the government’s immediate removal.
In a mark of how bizarre B.C.’s political situation has become since the close May 9 election
results, it’s believed to be the first time in the province’s history that a government bill has been defeated in the first-reading stage, which effectively kills it before it’s ever read in the legislature.
“This is not a session about the premier testing legislation, this is about testing the confidence of the house. That’s why we are here. That’s why we should get on with it,” NDP Leader John Horgan said. “If the premier keeps wanting to introduce NDP platform planks, that’s fine, but I think the NDP would be better at doing that, and that’s why we should have a confidence vote.”
Premier Christy Clark refused to accelerate her political demise.
“No, British Columbians want another election,” she said. “Let’s get on with the business of government. Let’s make sure the throne speech gains the confidence of this house … and we’ll make sure we can continue with the strongest economy anywhere in Canada.”
Horgan tabled an amendment of non-confidence in Clark’s throne speech Monday. The NDP called for unanimous support of the legislature to have a snap vote, but the Liberals were opposed.
The earliest confidence vote under legislature rules is now set for Thursday at 5:30 p.m. If the Liberal government falls, Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon could call upon Horgan to form a new government or call a new election.
In the meantime, the Liberals are set to debate a throne speech they introduced last week, which shifted more than two dozen Liberal policy positions the Liberals hadn’t campaigned on before the May 9 election. New promises included an end to a 10-year freeze on welfare rates, the elimination of Metro Vancouver bridge tolls, a referendum on electoral reform and a royal commission on public education. Critics inside and outside the Liberal party questioned the abrupt shift.
Rich Coleman, the deputy premier and MLA for Langley East, disputed any friction within the Liberal free-enterprise coalition, specifically with fiscal conservatives worried about the unspecified cost of all the new promises.
“My feedback from my supporters, which you would consider probably the conservative area of the province, has been very strong,” he said.
Coleman defended the Liberals’ refusal to move up the confidence vote from Thursday, saying the legislature’s rules are more important than ever in “a very strange period of time.”
“The house has got its rules and if there’s one thing I believed in, whether it be the five years I was in opposition or the 16 years in government, is I believe the rules of this house are the tenets of the fundamentals of democracy, and if you want to give up on those and you start chipping away at them, you might as well chip away at a bunch of other freedoms,” Coleman said.
“So the rules of four days of debate (before a vote) … I think we should follow those rules.”
In a sign of disdain, the NDP and Greens offered only one MLA each to debate the Liberal throne speech. The Liberals are to speak for three days on their own speech.
The defeated Liberal bill on political finance had promised to ban corporate and union donations, set an annual contribution limit of $2,500, forbid in-kind donations of staff and resources, restrict certain types of loans and ban foreign donations. It would have also applied to municipal elections.
Green Leader Andrew Weaver, who had said recently he could support the Liberal bill, changed his position Monday.
“It’s not appropriate for us to be debating government business until such time as the confidence has been tested,” he said before suggesting he might amend a future NDP bill to include some of the Liberal ideas.
Monday’s legislative proceedings also included the unusual spectacle of NDP MLAs, who are likely to soon become cabinet ministers, quizzing placeholder Liberal cabinet ministers about their portfolios.
Horgan and Clark sparred directly during question period.
Clark urged MLAs to vote in favour of her throne speech, calling it a sincere effort to take the campaign ideas of the opposition parties and enact them through her government.
“The road to stability is not to defeat the throne speech and risk an election,” she said. Horgan scoffed at that request. “The B.C. Liberals may think they have a divine right to rule in British Columbia,” he said, “but the people of British Columbia feel decidedly different about that.”