Andrew Weaver charts path for Liberals, NDP to win Greens' support

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BC Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver has laid out three priorities he needs fulfilled before he will support either the Liberals or NDP after British Columbians appeared to elect a minority government this week.

Mr. Weaver noted his "No. 1" priority is to get campaign finance reform and a ban on union and corporate donations. The Greens will also require a party to commit to a proportional representation electoral system. And the Greens' three MLAs want to be designated an official party – the rules provide that status only to parties with four seats, though there is nothing barring a governing party from offering it to a party that falls below the threshold.

Mr. Weaver laid out the agenda Friday in an interview. He has named a caucus chief of staff and deputy chief of staff to facilitate talks with the other parties.

The Liberals, who won 43 seats, and the NDP, who won 41, are each courting the Greens as the fallout from Tuesday's unprecedented election continues. Mr. Weaver's Greens took three seats, two more than they had in the past legislature. Mr. Weaver said the Greens would assist one party with "a stable government," and would "ensure that we would provide confidence to govern."

"By agreeing to work together with the political party, there would be terms. We would work with [them] to ensure we can support a Throne Speech, to ensure we can support a budget, work with them to ensure we do not put in a non-confidence motion for some negotiated time period, which can be anywhere from one week to four years, but we have to negotiate that."

There are almost 180,000 absentee votes across the province that must be counted, but all eyes are on Courtenay-Comox, which is currently an NDP seat, though the party won it by only nine votes. The absentee votes could flip that to the Liberals, giving Premier Christy Clark the extra seat she needs for a majority.

Without it, British Columbia appears headed for its first minority government in decades – a development that comes after 16 years of majority Liberal government.

For the Greens, official party status allows for an office budget, the opportunity to ask more questions in Question Period and an elevated salary for the leader.

"We cannot sit as three independents in the legislature. That is simply untenable. We need the resources of official party status. We are in a very, very unique position and need the resources that official party status would give us in order to ensure we can actually do our jobs in the legislature,"Mr. Weaver said.

Mr. Weaver, who said he has spoken twice with Ms. Clark and NDP Leader John Horgan since the election, said he does not expect official party status would be a problem for either.

Mr. Horgan promised, during the election, that an NDP government would move to a "fair, proportional voting system" and ban corporate and union donations. However, Mr. Weaver said it would be an error to assume the Greens are leaning toward the NDP at this point.

"I don't want to say we're closer to one [party] or another because it's a negotiation. These are our negotiations and we'll see who is closer to us," he said. "We certainly plan to let people know once we come to some kind of agreement as to our direction, but we have to get agreement at the table before we make that public."

Mr. Weaver said the Greens are intent on seeing "good public policy" result from any agreement and will support one party to govern B.C.

"It sounds naive, but that's why I got into politics," he said.

Mr. Weaver also said he was not concerned about the Greens being overshadowed by a larger majority party partner, which would get the credit for legislative actions the Greens helped them enact.

"Not one bit. We're not a bunch of career politicians who believe our ultimate goal is a quest for power," he said. "I've spent four years tossing the government ideas they get all the credit for. I have no problem with that. If you go into politics because you're looking for credit for stuff, you're going in for all the wrong reasons."

Asked if he would want cabinet seats for the Greens, Mr. Weaver said, "We're not pushing this at this stage … We're not leaning in that direction."