A final tally is expected by May 24, when all absentee ballots will be counted.
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The party won 41 seats, but there are still absentee ballots outstanding and there may be recounts, including Courtenay-Comox on Vancouver Island where NDP candidate Ronna-Rae Leonard won by nine votes.
“Constitutionally, the federal government might have the upper hand. but the BC government could force significant delays”, he said.
If the NDP keeps the riding, a deal with the Green Party could create a coalition with 44 seats.
D’Avignon said all three parties have made commitment to transit and transportation infrastructure spending, but said the George Massey tunnel replacement project promised by the Liberals may now be placed on the back burner. “Andrew Weaver has to stick-handle through this very carefully. They are interested in making BC stronger, achieving our collective goals and they demanded of us a new way and a new approach to achieving those goals”.
“We inspire people to vote for something… and those people are from across the political spectrum”, Weaver said.
For instance, the NDP’s George Chow won in Vancouver-Fraserview, a battleground riding where Liberal cabinet minister, Suzanne Anton, was seeking re-election. He celebrated denying the Liberals a majority, the possibility that he could end up governing after talks with the Greens – and the fact that the election outcome remains uncertain, with so many votes still to be counted. Clark’s government gave the green light in January.
“We’re much closer on core issues like the environment”, he said about New Democrats and Greens.
“In this election, the NDP vote did not go up”.
NDP Leader Horgan reached out to Green voters in his election night speech, mentioning issues that resonate with both parties. We both agree that big money needs to be banned from politics.
But the Liberal win spells the likely death knell of thermal coal exports through British Columbia. British Columbians voted for action for action on climate change.
“Site C is being constructed for an industry that does not exist, the LNG industry, and so desperate are the BC Liberals to actually land LNG that they sign contracts to subsidize LNG … to the tune of 6 cents a kilowatt hour”, said Weaver.
Horgan didn’t directly say a coalition is in the works.
Campaign financing and electoral reform is one policy that aligns with NDP policy. The NDP also do not support the pipeline project.
Weaver said watching B.C. invest in old fossil fuel technologies and miss opportunities to develop a sustainable and modern economy convinced him to pursue politics.
Traditionally, the party in power – the Liberals – get the first chance to convince the lieutenant governor that they can form government, especially if they have the largest number of seats.
Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley and Ian Anderson, president of Kinder Morgan Canada, issued brief statements congratulating all three parties, taking care not to make mention of a specific victor.
Weaver, whose party doubled its popular vote to 16.7 per cent compared with the last election, looked ecstatic as he addressed supporters in Victoria.
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The Green Party and NDP share similar ideas in some areas – such as opposition to Kinder Morgan’s pipeline, raising carbon taxes, and taxing housing speculators.
