When I went to download the NDP-Green political agreement Tuesday, the document service Scribd recommended two other similar texts: Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
I suppose critics will say the B.C. pact rests somewhere between fantasy, mythology and dystopian polemic. But let’s be fair, for the time being, and see it as a political pre-nupt – after all, the 10-pager says it holds together “so long as the principle of good faith and no surprises has been observed.”
What can be observed in the first couple of readings of the Andrew Weaver-John Horgan “2017 Confidence and Supply Agreement between the B.C. Green Caucus and the B.C. New Democrat Caucus”?
Let’s look past the terribly trite introductory pledges of “making democracy work for people” (presumably the privileged animals will be offended) and “building a sustainable economy that works for everyone” (unless you’ve got a six-figure household).
If you’re a Green supporter, I think you were hoping for a better negotiation.
You didn’t get the coveted proportional representation; you got another referendum, which can be the graveyard for anything complex. The campaign for it will commingle with the next municipal election race. While it ensures the NDP and Greens are visibly active and interfering for attention in the October 2018 contests, they risk the vote being about something other than what it’s about (hello, transit plebiscite).
You didn’t get free early-childhood education and daycare. Then again, neither did the NDP supporters of $10-a-day care. You got a bland commitment to “invest in childcare” to “increase affordability” that just as easily could have been written by the Liberals. Here was an economic opportunity for the taking, something even the business community would have supported. Such are the priorities of two male leaders, one supposes.
You got electoral finance reform, but I’m not sure you got political between-campaign finance reform. It isn’t at all clear how that dark money might be regulated.
You lost the tussle to the NDP on eliminating bridge tolls for the Golden Ears and Port Mann. Such is the plight of a junior partner.
You got regular meetings and consultations, party status with some resources, but no commitment of being truly inside the tent – no cabinet ministry, thus no true coalition.
You received commitments to “introduce” legislation, not to use the razor-thin majority to pass anything, on proportional representation, electoral finance, lobbying reform and a new fixed fall date for elections. This has the quality of the Seinfeld episode on the “reservation:” yes, something you can take, just not something you necessarily keep.
On the other hand, you got a swifter carbon tax increase – $5 more per tonne per year, starting in 2018 – and an expansion of it to “fugitive emissions and to slash-pile burning,” which ought to create a lot of jobs for industrial inspectors.
You got the Site C project sent for review by the regulator, but you didn’t send the project workers home by stopping construction – at least, not yet, so there is no imminent labour rebellion.
You agreed to “employ every tool available” to stop the Trans Mountain bitumen pipeline from Alberta to B.C. tidewater. Problem is, the toolkit isn’t in your possession – it belongs principally to Ottawa and the courts, even if you deny permits temporarily.
At their news conference Tuesday, Weaver was Mr. Knuckles to Horgan’s Mr. Chuckles on Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s support of Trans Mountain. I suspect the premier-in-waiting held a little post-mortem on that performance art.
You got a baby-step pilot program in the first NDP budget to test the wisdom of basic income support. The first budget will also feature a prescription drug program overhaul; this has more meaning, as does quite a lot of the language in the pact for seniors.
It is challenging to see how Weaver builds a big party from his burgeoning movement as a result of this. Perhaps he understands that a portion of his electoral support was parked from the Liberals, either to send a Brexit-like jolt it did not realize would detonate or to send the party into the wilderness briefly.
That said, it is difficult to see how the Liberals might have delivered Weaver a better deal. Some of the issues in the 10-page pact were show-stoppers, whereas the NDP wants the show to begin.
Still-Premier Christy Clark had the somber tone of the last batter in the ninth inning with the team down by a dozen runs. The game is soon over, but she will take another swing or three for the fences – a return to the legislature with a cabinet, a budget, maybe a throne speech.
The ultimate optimist admitted her government is “likely” to be defeated, the only political understatement of the day.
