MLAs debate amending an amended amendment
JUST CALL US WHEN YOU’RE DONE — Close followers of the Election Act amendments were spellbound at the progress of debate. First, Green MLA
Andrew Weaver explained where he was at.
“Unfortunately, I must speak against this subamendment. The reason why I must speak against this subamendment is that it falls into precisely the criticism that I made with the amendment …”
The government’s amendment was put on the table at the last minute. It was amended again. The subamendment was subamended and put on the following day.
“I will be voting against this section, against the amendment first.”
After more discussion, the chair eventually ruled: “We will move forward with the subamendment. … Should that subamendment indeed pass, obviously then we will have the subamendment as part of the amend- ment. Perhaps if the member would like to amend the amended amendment, then the member can propose such. Should that subamendment fail, then it would be in order, at that time, for the member to put forward an additional subamendment to the amendment.”
THE WRATH OF KWAN — NDP MLA Jenny Kwan bowed out of the legislature after 19 years on Thursday, leaving to pursue a federal seat.
NDP Leader John Horgan remembered her as one of the two “wonder women” (with Joy MacPhail) who made up the two-person caucus from 2001 to 2005. Finance Minister Mike de Jong said they were “like soldiers caught in a foxhole behind enemy lines.”
She once told him one of his bills was the equivalent of “solid waste from male cattle” and advised him on what to do with it. He wished her well, saying she made a difference.
Kwan said: “People think that we’re super brave, Joy and myself. I have to say there were many moments when we were walking up the stairs from the basement of this place, and we were literally shaking.”
She vowed never to come back until the NDP win power, “on the occasion I will be back and you will see the wrath of Kwan walking down the halls.”