Clark’s exit gives Horgan a break

In a last-ditch effort to cling to power, Christy Clark disavowed both the B.C. Liberal party’s election platform and her own government’s nearly seven years in power in a final Throne Speech.

It made her future as leader precarious, if not impossible.

Her “clone speech” that appropriated the New Democrats’ playbook put her on a collision course with conservatives, who have largely dominated the inappropriately named and often uncomfortable Liberal coalition.

It was a $2.6-billion gambit that promised previously no-go items like child care, higher welfare rates, an end to corporate political donations and an increased carbon tax.

The only thing that might have kept the party’s hardliners onside was if Clark had succeeded in luring the support of the three-person Green caucus to keep her party in power.

Interim leader Rich Coleman said Friday that the party will now move forward in “another direction.”

Presumably, whether that other direction is a back-to-thefuture course of fiscal restraint, tax cuts and miserly spending on social programs or something more liberal will depend on the new leader. How and when the leader is chosen will be decided by the party’s executive within the next 28 days.

Meantime, Clark has handed the New Democrats a gift.

By resigning her seat in Kelowna West, the NDP/Green coalition will at least initially have a two-seat margin in the legislature. Until a byelection is held within six months of Clark’s resignation, the government won’t have to depend on the speaker to cast deciding votes.

Coleman suggested that Clark’s resignation cleared the way for a leadership race “without acrimony or issues.” That seems unlikely with the party’s core values now seemingly up for grabs and so many disappointed members still trying to sort out who to blame for their defeat.

So, while the Liberals sort out their candidate in Kelowna West and who wins the leadership contest, Premier John Horgan suddenly has some breathing room.

It will be easier to pass legislation fulfilling promises made to the voters and to the Greens in exchange for their support including campaign finance reform, electoral reform, increased taxes for high-wage earners and corporations and a framework for a universal child care program.

With Liberals’ attention focusing inward, New Democrats will be busy dribbling out daily doses of outrage over what they’ve found hidden in government files, inoculating themselves from blame when they next go before electors.

Expect more things like the consultant’s report on ICBC prepared by the Liberal government being leaked last week. That report suggested that the financially wobbly, Crown corporation requires drastic measures (including rate hikes of as high as 30 per cent) to restore it to health.

Earlier this week, IntegrityBC proposed a list of other corners the NDP government might poke into: government subsidized, non-profit societies like AdvantageBC and the Forest Enhancement Society; HQ Vancouver; the B.C. Immigrant Investor Fund; and the $46-million electric car incentive program run by the New Car Dealers Association.

But more important than the gift of breathing room in a hung Parliament, Clark’s resignation provides Horgan with the tantalizing and likely irresistible opportunity to call a quick election.

It would mean breaking his pledge to British Columbians that the NDP/Green coalition could be sustained for four years. Still, it might well be worth it. The Liberals might be forced to campaign with Coleman at the helm. Coleman lacks Clark’s charisma and, after having served as deputy premier, housing and energy minister, he may prove almost as divisive a figure as she was.

But the greatest allure of a quick election? By capitalizing on a weakened opposition and delivering on some popular promises, the New Democrats might obviate the need to share power with the Greens.