No rift over Speaker, parties insist, but Clark’s ‘distraction’ must end
With eight days before the B.C. legislature convenes, the NDP and Green party publicly reaffirmed their power-sharing alliance following speculation the problem of which party would supply an MLA to become Speaker was causing cracks.
NDP Leader John Horgan and Green Leader Andrew Weaver also criticized Premier Christy Clark for hanging on to power, appointing a large “caretaker” cabinet, and for her “delay and distract” tactics.
“This distraction is part of the Liberal plan to make people think we can’t make this work, but we’re committed to doing this,” Horgan said at a news conference with Weaver on Wednesday in Victoria.
“We have an accord,” Weaver said. “We have confidence it will work out. There’s no arguments between John and I despite the fact it makes good Twitter stories.”
Clark’s Liberals won the most seats in the May 9 election, but not a majority. It has 43 seats compared to a combined 44 for the NDP and Greens.
With such a razor-thin margin, all parties appear loath to give up a member to serve as Speaker.
Horgan said Wednesday none of his members are interested in the job. Neither are the other two Green MLAs, Weaver said. A Liberal official had said no one in their caucus is keen on the role in an NDP government.
Earlier this week, Weaver voiced his expectation, based on negotiations with the NDP, that the NDP can persuade a Liberal member to become Speaker. Green adviser Norman Spector, a member of the bargaining team, tweeted the NDP- Greens deal was “predicated on defection from Liberal caucus.”
On Wednesday, Weaver said the issue wasn’t a deal-breaker. The tweet was “wrong ” and the author may have mixed up an internal discussion with official negotiations, he said, adding Spector, whom Weaver didn’t identify by name, may have come close to violating a non-disclosure agreement.
Spector declined an interview, saying his tweet speaks for itself.
The issue of Speaker was raised during power-sharing negotiations, Horgan said, but it wasn’t a “foundational” part and was not written into the agreement.
Clark has indicated a Liberal MLA will sit as Speaker when the house is recalled June 22 following custom that dictates the Speaker come from the governing party.
But Horgan and Weaver said the person elected as Speaker should remain in what is supposed to be a non-partisan position for the duration of the session, normally four years, following the defeat of the Liberal government in a confidence vote.
If Clark directed any of her MLAs to resign as Speaker or not step up to the job, it would be “one of the most egregious examples of undermining democracy that has ever been seen in the Westminster parliamentary democracy,” said Weaver, calling it a “constitutional crisis,” though he appeared to backpedal later on the fiery phrase.
Horgan dialed down the tone, saying it would be a “problem of character and ethics,” then repeated the urgency of moving with haste so a new government can get to work on important issues facing the province.
Andrew Wilkinson, a Liberal cabinet minister, said there has been no such directive from Clark.
“We do not dictate to people what they should and should not be doing,” he said. “That individual has to make up their own mind about their preferences and predilections once they’re chosen as the Speaker.”
Philippe Lagassé, a parliamentary expert and associate professor at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, said the Speaker’s role is to be an impartial arbiter in the legislature. He or she only casts a vote in the event of a tie, and usually in favour of the status quo.
Tradition usually dictates the Speaker come from the governing party, but it is not a requirement or a rule, Lagassé said, citing the example of former Liberal MP Peter Milliken, who served as Speaker in the House of Commons during a Conservative government.
In B.C.’s case, Lagassé believes the person who becomes Speaker under Clark couldn’t resign when a Horgan-led government took over without undermining the integrity of the office.
“It’s a regrettable situation” if the Speaker resigns, he said. “It’s not honourable, and so much of the Westminster system relies on honourable behaviour to put parliament above politics.”
If an NDP or Green MLA becomes Speaker, the house would be divided 43-43, and the Speaker would likely be put in the awkward position of having to cast a tiebreaking vote regularly, tainting the impartiality crucial to a functioning legislature, he said.
Lagassé acknowledged that if a Liberal member stays on as Speaker, the Liberals would be at a numerical disadvantage — “You’re asking a lot from a small legislature with a partisan tradition to act that way” — but as an idealist, he said he hopes the Speaker would put the office above the party.
“I’m not sure what the Liberals would hope to get out of this, except to exploit the idea of a more partisan Speaker in the next election,” he said. “If the NDP-Green coalition will fall apart, it’ll fall apart anyway. I fail to see why we can’t just do the honourable thing in this case.”
I’m not sure what the Liberals would hope to get out of this, except to exploit the idea of a more partisan Speaker in the next election.