Lt.-Gov. Guichon faces decision with few precedents
Experts says snap election less likely than allowing new government to form
There is probably little in Lt.- Gov. Judith Guichon’s past as a rancher and advocate for conservation that would have prepared her for being thrust into the centre of Canadian constitutional democracy, but there are few precedents for the position she is in.
Guichon left the ranges of her family’s historic ranch in the Nicola Valley near Merritt just before roundup in 2012 to take over the mostly ceremonial viceregal position from her predecessor, Steven Point, a Sto:lo First Nation elder and esteemed former Provincial Court judge.
However, if matters in the B.C. legislature follow the expected path and the government of Premier Christy Clark falls on a vote of non-confidence Thursday, she will go to Guichon to resign.
Then the lieutenant-governor will be in the extremely rare position, as an appointed dignitary, of making an independent decision on how to best ensure the stability and integrity of the B.C. government, said Margot Young, an expert in constitutional law in the Allard School of Law at the University of B.C.
“(Lieutenants-governor) are often picked for other sorts of reasons” than expertise in constitutional law, said Young, “but it often doesn’t matter because most of the time it’s largely a ceremonial position.
“But they do have, in moments of political impasses or constitutional crisis, this critical role as the site where the integrity of Canadian democracy rests.”
Typically, a lieutenant-governor acts on the advice of the governing leader when it comes to giving Royal Assent to legislation or deciding the point to dissolve a legislature and drop the writs of election, Young said.
However, in this instance, Clark won’t have the confidence to govern, so Guichon won’t be bound by any advice that Clark gives her, and Guichon’s background will have little bearing on the matter facing her since the circumstances are so rare.
The last time a Canadian lieutenant-governor was thrust into a similar position was in 1985 when an Ontario minority Conservative government fell on a vote of nonconfidence and then-Lt.- Gov. John Black Aird offered a Liberal-NDP coalition the chance to govern.
“I think she has quite a lot (of power),” said political scientist Hamish Telford. “It really will be her decision.”
And Telford, head of the political science department at the University of the Fraser Valley, said Guichon has likely been weighing the consequences of that decision since the precarious outcome of B.C.’s election on May 9, taking the advice of experts along the way.
Guichon was appointed to the position by former prime minister Stephen Harper in 2012. While she acknowledged in a 2012 Postmedia News profile that she had been asked to run for politics, she always declined. She built a reputation as a strong advocate for agriculture and the communities that she lived in through her involvement as a director on local health authorities and the B.C. Cattleman’s Association.
In this instance, Telford said Guichon will rely on counsel from a wide group of people, which could include expertise from within the B.C. legislature, such as the clerk of the legislature, the attorney-general’s office, Gov.- Gen. David Johnston, former governors-general and other lieutenants-governor.
It isn’t a given that Guichon will immediately hand over the reins of power to NDP Leader John Horgan, to form a government, with the backing of Andrew Weaver’s Green party. Experts agree, however, that would be a more likely choice than dissolving the legislature and calling another election.
Telford said Clark’s moves in the legislature appear to be laying the groundwork for dissolution and a new election, but he thinks that would be a bad idea. “(An NDP/ Green government) may not be sustainable, but in my own opinion, before the legislature is dissolved, it should be given that opportunity.”
And a snap election could run the risk of not providing a more stable result, added UBC political scientist Max Cameron.
“As long as there is the possibility of making the legislature work, I think the institutional interest of the lieutenant-governor is to enable that to happen,” he said.