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The BC NDP won the spring session. And it wasn't even close

The spring legislative session ended in acrimony, but its conclusion bore little relation to the events of the past four months.
Legislature

The spring legislative session ended in acrimony, but its conclusion bore little relation to the events of the past four months.

The NDP government accomplished most of its legislative agenda, the Green Party showed it can play a role in shaping public policy and the BC Liberals made it clear they have a ways to go before exorcising the lingering trauma from their 2017 election loss.

The antics of Speaker Darryl Plecas during the last two days of the session were a reminder he is a divisive, partisan figure who wants to disrupt. He stands accused of workplace bullying and seems intent on investigating the legislature’s security staff, a move that may result in those staff members joining the B.C. Government Employees Union, which would be a first.

But while Plecas and his staff have become a circus sideshow, they haven’t stopped the NDP from checking off a lot of boxes from their list of campaign promises.

The NDP enacted significant changes to labour laws, the Agricultural Land Reserve and how forest tenures are managed. As well, it dealt with unfair ticket sales, B.C. Ferry routes and fares, and called a public inquiry into money laundering.

As for the Green Party, the session provided more evidence its three members have absolutely no intention of pulling their support from the NDP government, thus paving the way for the NDP to run the full mandate until the fall of 2021.

While occasionally hypercritical of the NDP’s performance on some issues, the Greens can still be counted on to vote with the government at the right time.

The Greens also managed to get one of their bills passed into law, a major accomplishment. And they allowed the BC Liberals to amend some NDP legislation, so the third party in the House is indeed having some impact.

But the BC Liberals are still finding their way in the political wilderness and some members of their caucus still seem to have trouble realizing they are no longer in government.

It is as if they think this is all a bad dream and one day they will wake up and find themselves on the other side of the House. The close seat count leads to the misconception that they are so close to holding power.

Still, the BC Liberals did land the occasional blow, pressuring the government into conducting a probe (watered-down, but still) into gas prices, embarrassed a cabinet minister (Citizen Services Minister Jinny Sims) on a regular basis over her email problems and exposed major problems with the NDP’s caribou protection plan.  

Nevertheless, despite those modest successes, the session was a winner for the NDP. Hands down.

Now, if they can all just find a way to get the Speaker under control.

Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global BC.