Green Party Is Poised to Shift Power Balance in British Columbia
Andrew Weaver said that We’re attracting voters from across the political spectrum who want politics to be done differently in British Columbia,
The Liberals have long supported major infrastructure projects
that are anathema to the Green Party, including a 715-mile expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain oil pipeline, a proposed $20 billion liquefied natural gas export initiative and the controversial $7 billion Site C hydroelectric dam and power station, which Mr. Weaver had promised to cancel.
Voters on Tuesday handed three provincial legislative seats to the Green Party, in its best-ever electoral performance nationally,
denying a majority to the ruling British Columbia Liberal Party or its main opponent, the left-leaning New Democratic Party.
But the bitter election provides important lessons about a province hankering for new leadership amid rising costs of living, cuts to education
and distrust over the Liberals’ embrace of unlimited political donations, said Hamish Telford, a political-science professor at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia.
If the Liberals remain in a minority government, their chances of sustaining long-championed policies
and costly infrastructure projects vehemently opposed by the New Democrats and even more progressive Greens will be reduced.
The New Democrats are more ideologically aligned with the Greens,
but a coalition may come down to whether the Liberals are prepared to sacrifice core policies for power.
"It would be reckless and irresponsible of me to show my cards until that’s done." Both Ms. Clark
and her rival New Democratic leader, John Horgan, praised the Green Party’s performance and highlighted their intent to work with Mr. Weaver.