New Session of BC Legislature starts off with a bang!

This past Friday - a normally mundane and quiet prorogation address by the Lt-Gov of BC to the BC Legislature to terminate one session that leads to a new session of the Legislature commencing was anything but

The night before - provincial media had reported that all of the 42 BC Liberal MLA's had handed in the required notice to the Clerk of the BC Legislature (Craig James) that they were not interested in seeking the position of Speaker of the BC Legislature and it was anticipated that Raj Chouhan, the Deputy Speaker during the 1st Session of the 41st Parliament of BC and NDP MLA for Burnaby-Edmonds was set to become the new Speaker

However, before the Prorogation Address by the Lt-Gov, the Legislature needed to elect a new Speaker as former Speaker Steve Thomson resigned back on June 29th and the Clerk announced that Abbotsford South MLA Darryl Plecas, a former BC Liberal (more on that later) was elected, by acclamation, as the new Speaker of the Legislature.  Mr. Plecas's former colleagues used one word in describing their former colleague's effort in seeking to become Speaker - betrayal.  Read more here

After the Lt-Gov accepted Mr. Plecas as the new BC Legislature Speaker - the Lt-Gov proceeded to the Prorogation Address which led to the Legislature rising until the afternoon when a new Speech from the Throne was read.  You can read the full 2nd Session of the 41st Parliament of BC Speech from the Throne here. Most media commentary following Speech from the Throne praised the Speech except from the opposition BC Liberals' who critiqued it for lacking details on supporting the BC Economy

On Saturday, Sept 9th - at the request of the BC Liberal Abbotsford South Riding Association, the Executive of the BC Liberal Party passed a "Special Resolution" revoking the BC Liberal Party membership of Darryl Plecas.  Read more here while Mr. Plecas talked with Mike Smyth of the Vancouver Province as to why he sought the Speaker's role.  Read here

At the moment -- the BC Legislature, minus the Speaker, has 41 NDP MLA's, 41 BC Liberal MLA's and 3 BC Green MLA with 1 vacant seat (Kelowna West), due to the resignation of former BC Premier Christy Clark.  The by-election for Kelowna West must be called by Feb 2018 and it is currently expected that Ben Stewart, the BC Liberal Party nominee for Kelowna West will easily win back that seat and thus the House make up, post Feb 2018, would be 41 NDP MLA's, 42 BC Liberal MLA's and 3 BC Green MLA's (2 seat majority between government and opposition) between Feb March 2018 to Fall 2021, with the Confidence/Supply Agreement between NDP/Green Party Caucuses in place.  Read the agreement here

There is also the potential for a recall campaign against Mr. Plecas (or other MLA's) to start as soon as mid November 2018, as per the Recall and Initiative Act which requires that 40% of registered voters in the riding that voters wish to "recall" their MLA must sign a petition and if the petition is determined to be successful, that MLA is no longer elected and a subsequent by-election will be necessary.  Read more information on the recall process from Elections BC here.

25 Recall Petitions have been approved by Elections BC since 1995 and none to date have been successful.  The closest successful recall petition was in 1998 when Elections BC had started the verification process for a recall petition against former BC Liberal Party MLA Paul Reistma who represented the then riding of Parksville-Qualicum from 1996-1998 after he was revealed to use aliases to praise himself and attack his political opponents in the media and it was assumed that the petition and resulting by-election would be successful in removing Mr. Reistma.  View here

Finally - Prince-George Valemount MLA Shirley Bond speaks to 250News about the revoking of Darryl Plecas's membership in the BC Liberal Party.  Click here

Conclusion:

Given the above and how very challenging it is to do a successful MLA Recall Process - it is all but certain that the NDP, with BC Greens' support, will govern BC all the way to the Fall 2021 Provincial Election, failing either the NDP or Greens' "walking away" from their Confidence/Supply Agreement or an "accidental" vote of non-confidence where the opposition outvotes the government, which is highly unlikely, if the NDP Government Whip manages everything correctly.  A historical note -- the last BC NDP Government in 1996-2001 only had a 3 seat majority and was able to govern the entire term.

~SF