Now that the numbers are settling in and the future looks fixed for the next 4.5 years with a BC Liberal majority (I say looks because this is BC and things can change in a heartbeat) what should the BC Liberals do?
They should run out and find a safe BC Liberal seat for their leader to run and try to regain entry into the legislature with right?
Not necessarily because there is no guarantee that she would win or that a new MLA in a safe seat would want to step down. (Do you really think Andrew Wilkinson or Gordon Hogg would want to fall on their sword for Clark?)
I think one of the first things they should do, now that the Green party of BC has won a seat, is to grant them official party status. It’s within the rules of the house to do that and would be the nice thing to do right?
Yes but they should do it but not because it’s nice or right, right. The BC Liberals should grant official party status because it would all but guarantee them election victory in 2017.
How?
If you believe as a lot of people do that the Green vote split caused the NDP to lose a number of seats they should have won, then granting them that status will allow them to get even stronger and split the vote in even more seats in the future.
It would allow Premier Clark to further distance herself from Gordon Campbell who refused the BCNDP Official party status after they were thrashed in the polls and reduced to 2 seats in 2001.( This staement assumes that Clark does not get 801’d by her own party even though she won an election)
Thirdly and just as important; is that this election was one the NDP should have won, not just because of the polls but because of all the scandals and mayhem caused by the Liberal party. It was BCNDP’s to lose and lose they did.
Furthermore, with the rise of the Green party, this election was probably the NDP’s best and last chance to win an election in this province.
Granting first party status to the Greens would make the turmoil that was seen in the NDP with the beheading of Carol James seem like a walk in the park.
That turmoil, if you believe the BCNDP is a provincial arm of their Federal party, would also extend itself into the next federal election in 2015.
That would benefit either of the forces in the BC Liberals, Conservative or Liberal.
Extending an olive branch to the Greens and granting them first party status would be a win win for a party who likes quick wins.