Yesterday, I wrote a column about how B.C.'s new NDP government will likely try to poison the B.C. Liberal brand by painting the Christy Clark regime as financially reckless.

Today, I'll look at how the NDP government could interact with its junior partner in the legislature, the B.C Green party.

As everyone knows by now, the three B.C. Green MLAs have agreed to support the NDP minority government on confidence and supply bills.

Premier John Horgan's chief of staff, Geoff Meggs, and two other political aides in the new government, Mira Oreck and her partner Stepan Vdovine, have been in a similar situation before.

Vdovine and Oreck were key campaign operatives with Vision Vancouver. It captured control of Vancouver city hall nearly a decade ago in a supposed partnership with the left-wing Coalition of Progressive Electors.

COPE supported Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson in 2008. Each party limited the number of candidates to avoid cannibalizing the other's support.

Robertson was elected. That was also the same year that Meggs was first elected to council on the Vision Vancouver slate. Meggs also played a key role in the campaign.

But unlike the B.C. Greens with the B.C. NDP, COPE did not have a written agreement with Vision Vancouver on how things would work in government in advance of Vision taking the reins of power.

Vision Vancouver won the 2008 election in a landslide. So unlike today, there was also no minority government.

As a result, the two COPE councillors, David Cadman and Ellen Woodsworth, were in for a rude awakening.

Cadman had 19 years experience at Metro Vancouver, which included senior communications work. He had previously served as a director on Metro Vancouver when COPE controlled the city government from 2002 to 2005. Moreover, Cadman had extensive experience on the board of TransLink.

Yet Mayor Robertson refused to appoint him to the board of Metro Vancouver. Cadman was spurned in favour of Vision politicians with far less regional governing experience.

Woodsworth was a well known housing activist. This had been one of the causes of her life.

But when the new Vision Vancouver-controlled government created a committee to address housing issues, Woodsworth was not appointed as a member. She wasn't going to be given the spotlight in any way, regardless of all the expertise she could bring.

Those two incidents convinced the COPE politicians that they weren't really partners in the new government, even though they had backed the mayor's candidacy.

A year after the election, Vision Vancouver supremo Mike Magee had this to say in an interview with the Straight about his party's relationship with COPE: “We’re gonna love ’em to death.”

Writer Daniel Wood then added the following sentence: "His dark laugh at the last word leaves no doubt what he means."

Cadman didn't obtain a COPE council nomination in 2011 and Woodsworth was defeated in the 2011 municipal election.

Sure enough, COPE was finally loved out of elected existence in 2013 when its last politician, school trustee Allan Wong, joined Vision Vancouver's caucus.

Electoral reform could shatter alliance

Today, the B.C. Greens' agreement with the NDP provides a measure of protection if the NDP breaks its word and forces a snap election before a referendum on electoral reform.

Voters would see the promises that were made in writing.

Green MLAs also don't have any expectation of cabinet posts or other positions, so they can't be blindsided like Cadman and Woodsworth were.

The NDP has simply promised no surprises. There's even a new secretariat to keep Green MLAs informed of the government's actions. While this will never be interpreted as an act of love, it suggests a measure of good faith. 

But it's worth noting Magee's comment in 2009 about loving COPE to death.

That can come about in a number of ways for the Greens. COPE was riven by factionalism, which resulted in Cadman being denied a nomination in 2011.

Divisions could easily develop, or even be generated deliberately, within the Green tent. For example, a federal dispute over relations with Israel nearly caused the leader, Elizabeth May, to resign.

Infighting among the B.C. Greens is the type of thing that might persuade one or more of its MLAs to join the NDP caucus.

Regarding proportional representation, the parties have agreed to work together in good faith to consult with the public on what system should be put to voters in a referendum.

The parties have both agreed to campaign actively in support of this.

But "campaign actively" is not defined in the agreement. And if the NDP is well ahead in the polls at that time, it might not be so keen to see proportional representation implemented when it's on the verge of winning a majority.

In fact, the NDP will have a greater incentive to campaign half-heartedly if the Greens and the B.C. Liberals collectively thwart amendments to the Labour Code, such as secret union certification ballots, that are desired by the B.C. Federation of Labour.

Electoral reform failed in Vancouver in 2004

Back in 2004, there was a lot of talk about Coalition of Progressive Electors councillors in civic government campaigning actively for a ward system in a plebiscite.

In reality, some of its middle-of-the-road polticians, including then mayor Larry Campbell, barely campaigned at all. And after Campbell and his allies formed Vision Vancouver, any idea of a ward system was put in the permanent deep freeze.

Meggs was Campbell's de facto chief of staff at that time.

Also keep in mind that two long-time New Democrats, David Schreck and Bill Tieleman, led the opposition to a provincial form of proportional representation, the single transferable vote, in 2009. It goes to show that while many New Democrats support electoral reform, not all of them are on-side with the idea.

And as we've seen with the federal Liberals under Justin Trudeau, appetite for electoral form has a way of waning once a party gains power under first-past-the-post.

So while everything seems peachy between the NDP and the B.C. Greens right now, there's no guarantee that the relationship won't sour in the coming years.

Vision Vancouver has proven that it is indeed possible to love one's political friends to death. Meggs, Oreck, and Vdovine have firsthand experience.

It's something that B.C. Green Leader Andrew Weaver might want to keep in mind in the months and years ahead.