British Columbia.

• Author: van Leeuwen, Alayna
• Position: Legislative Reports

A number of historic and unprecedented events have unfolded in recent months in British Columbia. The extraordinarily close results of the May 9 provincial general election led to a minority parliament, decades after BC's last experience with a minority government in 1952. As anticipated given the close party standings, the legislative sitting to test the confidence of the Assembly was brief but eventful.

General election results and a minority parliament

The preliminary election result was 43 seats for the BC Liberal Party, 41 for the BC New Democratic Party (NDP) and three for the BC Green Party. A party needs 44 seats for a majority in BC's 87 Member Assembly.

Two judicial recounts and the counting of about 179,000 absentee ballots completed on May 24 did not change party standings from the preliminary result. The BC Liberal Party received 40.36 per cent of total votes cast and the BC NDP 40.28 per cent the narrowest result between political parties in BC history and a separation of only 1,566 votes. The BC Green Party received its largest vote share ever in BC, at 16.84 per cent. The BC Green Party's leader, Andrew Weaver, was the first BC Green Party candidate elected to the Assembly in 2013; in increasing their seat count to three Members, the caucus is still short of the four-Member threshold for recognized party status under BC's Constitution Act. As such, Mr. Weaver and his caucus are currently recognized as Independents in the Legislative Assembly.

On May 29, John Horgan, Leader of the Official Opposition, and Mr. Weaver delivered a "2017 Confidence and Supply Agreement" to Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon to indicate the BC NDP was prepared to form Government with the support of Mr. Weaver and his caucus. The agreement pledges support of the Independent (BC Green) caucus on confidence and supply matters; their support with respect to other issues would be determined on an "issue by issue basis."

Premier Christy Clark indicated on May 30 that she intended to continue as Premier and would request the Lieutenant Governor convene the Legislative Assembly in order to test the confidence of the House. The Members of the Executive Council were sworn in at a ceremony at Government House on June 13. Many of the 22 Ministers were in Cabinet in the previous Parliament and retained their portfolios.

The 87 Members of the Legislative Assembly were sworn in during three separate caucus ceremonies held on June 7 and 8, 2017.

First Sitting of...