BC NDP to form New BC Government

Earlier today by a vote of 42-44 -- the BC Liberal Government, in place since 2001, lost a vote of confidence in the BC Legislature.  The motion that saw the defeat of the incumbent BC Liberals was:

Resolved -- We, Her Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in Session assembled, beg leave to thank Your Honour for the gracious Speech which Your Honour has addressed to us at the opening of the present Session.
But Your Honour’s present government does not have the confidence of this House.

Christy Clark then went, as is tradition/convention, to Government House to advise BC's Lieutenant-Governor (LG) that her government had lost the confidence of the BC Legislature and recommended to Her Honour that the Legislature be dissolved and new elections be held, during a 65 minute meeting with the LG.  The LG refused that advice and accordingly, Christy Clark was then required to tender her resignation and the LG then called upon John Horgan (BC NDP Leader) with the 2nd greatest amount of seats in the Legislature and asked formally if he would form a government to which Mr. Horgan replied that he would be pleased to do so.  Below is a video of John Horgan after meeting with the LG:



Both Cariboo-North and Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA's Coralee Oakes/Donna Barnett will revert to the Opposition side of the House.  BC Premier-Designate John Horgan will now take the next few days to put together a Cabinet to be sworn in by the LG and with a likely recall of the House being in mid to late July with the selection of a new Legislature Speaker followed by a new Throne Speech

It will be interesting to see Horgan's new Cabinet but some obvious choices include Carole James (Finance/Deputy Premier) and Selina Robinson (Community, Sport and Cultural Development)

Finally - given the timing this evening, it would be interesting to see if Horgan's Cabinet will have sufficient time to agree to participate in the usual UBCM Cabinet Minister meetings with local governments which takes place in late September.... My uncle, Alan Forseth, out of Kamloops takes a look at this situation from his own perspective which you can read here

I congratulate John Horgan and his team and look forward to seeing them in action in the days, weeks and months ahead...

~SF