An NDP–B.C. Green electoral nonaggression pact could end Christy Clark's tenure as premier

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      The B.C. Liberals appear to be determined to force another election on the province.

      That's clear from their refusal to provide a legislature speaker from their benches after the Christy Clark government falls in a nonconfidence vote.

      Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason, for one, thinks there's a pretty good chance that Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon will order another election. That's because she wouldn't want to see the speaker turned into an ordinary government MLA by constantly casting a tie-breaking vote in a deadlocked legislature.

      If B.C. voters have to go back to the polls this summer, the B.C. Liberals will have a big financial advantage over the NDP and Greens.

      But the NDP and Greens could easily counter that with a one-time agreement to cooperate electorally.

      If the two parties could reach consensus on confidence and supply votes, it should be easy to devise a workable nonaggression pact in the event of a quick election.

      The stated purpose could be that for a summer election, it's crucially important to defeat the B.C. Liberals for four reasons:

      * to give British Columbians a say on electoral reform;

      * to bring about genuine campaign finance reform to rid big money from provincial politics;

      * to fight the Kinder Morgan pipeline;

      * and to ensure that climate change is not put on the back burner, as has occurred under the Christy Clark government.

      To accomplish this, the NDP could agree not to run candidates against the three incumbent Green MLAs. This would ensure their reelection.

      And the Greens could agree not to run anyone against NDP candidates in constituencies where the New Democrats lost by fewer than 1,000 votes.

      This would likely ensure the defeat of the following B.C. Liberal MLAs: Sam Sullivan in Vancouver-False Creek, Joan Issacs in Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, and Jas Johal in Richmond-Queensborough.

      Under this scenario, other B.C. Liberal MLAs facing an uphill battle would include Doug Clovechok in Columbia River-Revelstoke and Jackie Tegart in Fraser-Nicola. That's because they also won by fewer than 1,000 votes.

      That's five B.C. Liberal MLAs, including three rookies, who would see their political careers possibly going up in smoke in an election.

      That's a powerful inducement for any one of them to put their name forward to serve as speaker, which comes with an extra $52,940.92 per annum on top of the $105,881.83 MLA salary.

      The NDP probably doesn't have to worry so much about the seats that it won by a narrow margin. That's because there will be some Green voters who will cast ballots for the NDP candidate for the reasons outlined in the parties' nonaggression pact.

      If Weaver and Horgan kept the Site C dam out of the agreement, it would offer one less target for the mainstream media, which seems to be obsessed with ensuring that this white elephant be built.

      This type of nonaggression pact would likely spell the demise of Christy Clark's political career and put an end to the games she's playing to try to remain premier.

      And who knows? Perhaps it would even produce a speaker from the B.C. Liberal side of the house. 

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