Clark still confident she can run a minority government
Posted May 16, 2017 3:34 pm.
Last Updated May 16, 2017 5:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – BC Liberal Leader Christy Clark continues to say she’s confident she can run a minority government.
Clark’s comments come a week after she almost lost her job as BC’s Premier.
After meeting with the BC NDP and Green Party Leaders, Clark is not saying yet whether she’s ready to trigger another election by the end of this year. And she says she’ll wait until the final vote tallies come in next week before saying what her party is ready to do to stay in power in a possible minority government.
Clark says she’s had friendly conversations with both John Horgan and Andrew Weaver, but she isn’t revealing the details.
“I’m not able and shouldn’t negotiate and share any of those private conversations with the media. I will say they were friendly conversations. To both of them, really what I talked about was the fact that British Columbians want us all to work together, I think that was a very clear result from the election. And I think there’s an appetite to do that.”
“We’re at a listening moment. We’re talking other parties as people have asked us to do in this election.”
The Liberals won 43 seats, one shy of a majority, while the NDP got 41 and the Greens got 3. The result remains unclear until 176,000 absentee votes are counted, and there are recounts in two ridings.
John Horgan has also held a press conference this afternoon, telling media he and the Greens have a lot in common on voting reform, political donations and environmental issues.
“I spoke with Ms Clark, I’ve also spoken a couple of times with Mr Weaver. We are in discussions with Mr Weaver’s group, our staff and their staff. I have no such relationship with the BC Liberals.”
“I believe that the 170,000 ballots to be counted will confirm more or less the same outcome as we’ve got now and I believe that working with the other opposition party we can come up with a resolution that will meet the interest of all British Columbia.”
Meanwhile, the Greens have announced a negotiating team that includes leader Andrew Weaver and political strategist Norman Spector, who was once the chief of staff of former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.