Frankly Speaking

CBC photo Premier John Horgan celebrates with new Nanaimo MLA Sheila Malcolmson, who won the Wednesday byelection with almost 50 percent of the vote. There are a few significant lessons to be pondered from the results of Wednesday’s byelection in Nanaimo. First and foremost - the NDP government is here to stay, likely for at least another year. Winning NDP candidate Sheila Malcolmson won almost 50 per cent of the vote, with final figures from the counting on Wednesday giving her 10,538 votes. Liberal candidate Tony Harris has 40.5 per cent of the vote, with 8,665. The most surprising and significant vote totals were posted by Michele Ney of the Green Party. She comes from a well-known political family, and the Green Party had close to 20 per cent of the vote in 2017. Her vote percentage was just over seven per cent, and she gained just 1,579 votes. It is obvious that most of the Green vote from 2017 migrated to the NDP and Liberals. Many Green voters from 201...

Photo by Lance Peverley, Peace Arch News As moderator of Tuesday's all-candidates forum in the South Surrey-White Rock riding, I was placed in the midst of the standing room-only audience to ask questions to the candidates on behalf of the organizers and citizens who emailed their questions to the South Surrey and White Rock Chamber of Commerce.  The federal byelection in South Surrey-White Rock takes place on Monday, Dec. 11. The byelection has captured considerably more interest than usual, largely because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has visited the area twice to campaign with Liberal candidate Gordon Hogg. This is unprecedented for Surrey and White Rock. Never has a sitting prime minister spent that much time and energy campaigning for a single candidate, and no party leader has ever spent time in South Surrey or White Rock during an election. Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has also visited the area twice, and Green Party leader Elizabeth May is scheduled to ...

Finance Minister Mike de Jong is also the BC Liberals' government house leader. Mike de Jong, Abbotsford West MLA (who also represents northeast Langley) was the latest provincial politician to hold a news conference. His took place today, in Vancouver. De Jong is the government house leader and also minister of finance. He (quite rightly) said it is not up to the BC Liberals to strengthen the hand of an NDP minority government which will likely take office when the BC Liberals lose the confidence of the B.C. legislature. He does not expect a BC Liberal to stay on as Speaker once the government falls. A Liberal will likely to become Speaker on June 22, when the legislature is scheduled to meet. That will allow the government to present a throne speech He is also correct that the NDP-Green agreement seems quite shaky. We will know best how strong it is after there is an NDP minority government in place. For now, Green Party leader Andrew Weaver is making irresponsible statemen...

Rich Coleman's new responsibilities for BC Hydro, which he assumed in today's cabinet shuffle, are a signal that the BC Liberals want to deepen the fissure between the NDP and the Greens over the Site C dam project. The objective is another election, as soon as possible. Most people may think the revised cabinet announced by Premier Christy Clark on Monday is simply rearranging the deck chairs on the rapidly-sinking Titanic. On the surface, that is absolutely correct. However, a closer look at the new cabinet could lead to the conclusion that Clark is outfitting them with life preservers, in the strong hope that this new cabinet will all board life boats, and make their way aboard a new ship. The new responsibilities given to Langley East MLA Rich Coleman illustrate this point perfectly. He has been named minister of energy and mines, with responsibility for BC Hydro. He is still deputy premier, even though that fact was left out of the news release announcing th...

Travelling across the Port Mann Bridge may become free, if the NDP follow through with plans to eliminate tolling on bridges. An NDP minority government will likely be in place within the month. None of us have any idea of when the NDP will form a minority government in Victoria, but the agreement signed last week by NDP leader John Horgan and Green leader Andrew Weaver indicates it will happen. Now that the legislature has been called back (it will begin sitting on June 22), it's a fair guess that an NDP minority government will take power in late June or early July. That means some significant changes in the transportation realm, one of the hot button issues that attracted votes for both parties in Surrey and Delta. The NDP was the prime beneficiary, going from three seats in Surrey to seven NDP MLAs representing Surrey and Delta in the provincial legislature. This compares to four BC Liberals. Attention to transportation issues also helped the NDP win the two Mapl...