Christy Clark resigns; NDP’s John Horgan to form new government in British Columbia

British Colum­bia will soon have a new Pre­mier head­ing up a more pro­gres­sive gov­ern­ment fol­low­ing today’s deci­sion by the province’s Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Judith Gui­chon to ask New Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty Leader John Hor­gan to form a government.

Hor­gan’s cau­cus reached a con­fi­dence and sup­ply agree­ment a few weeks ago with the BC Greens that paved the way for the ouster of Christy Clark and the reign­ing BC Lib­er­als, who have been run­ning the province for a decade and a half and are major boost­ers of the fos­sil fuels indus­try, despite their name.

The BC Lib­er­als attempt­ed to hang on to pow­er by going through the motion’s of prepar­ing and offer­ing a Speech from The Throne, but in the end, Clark’s gov­ern­ment lost the inevitable vote of con­fi­dence (held today) and she was com­pelled to resign as cus­tom demands.

Clark has con­firmed that she advised Gui­chon to dis­solve the Leg­isla­tive Assem­bly and call new elec­tions. But the Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor declined to do so.

“As Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor of British Colum­bia, and as the rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Her Majesty the Queen of Cana­da, I have met with Pre­mier Clark and will accept her res­ig­na­tion,” Gui­chon said in a state­ment pub­lished a short time ago. “I have asked Mr. Hor­gan to form a gov­ern­ment, he hav­ing assured me that he can form a gov­ern­ment which will have the con­fi­dence of the Leg­isla­tive Assembly.”

“Today British Columbians final­ly have the change they vot­ed for,” tweet­ed Hor­gan after meet­ing with Gui­chon at Gov­ern­ment House in Victoria.

“Thank you to every­one who got us here. The hard work starts now.”

[Watch Hor­gan’s post-meet­ing remarks from the steps of Gov­ern­ment House.]

Hor­gan is expect­ed to be sworn in as Pre­mier rel­a­tive­ly soon. He also must get to work form­ing his cab­i­net, which will run the province as a minor­i­ty government.

The B.C. Greens were equal­ly pleased with the developments.

“After sev­en long weeks, I am delight­ed that British Columbians will final­ly have a new gov­ern­ment,” said Green Leader Andrew Weaver in a state­ment.

“When we launched our elec­tion cam­paign, we promised to do pol­i­tics dif­fer­ent­ly. Our Con­fi­dence and Sup­ply Agree­ment [with the NDP] lays the ground­work for a new kind of col­lab­o­ra­tive, pro­duc­tive parliament.”

“The B.C. Green cau­cus will pro­vide sta­bil­i­ty for this new minor­i­ty gov­ern­ment by sup­port­ing con­fi­dence and sup­ply mea­sures. We have also agreed to col­lab­o­rate on a wide range of poli­cies that are sup­port­ed by a major­i­ty of British Columbians. As an oppo­si­tion cau­cus, we will col­lab­o­rate with our col­leagues on both sides of the house to advance good pub­lic pol­i­cy that will put the inter­ests of British Columbians first, as well as hold the gov­ern­ment to account for their deci­sions and actions.

“On May 9, British Columbians sent us a strong sig­nal that they want us to work togeth­er – no par­ty was giv­en a major­i­ty of seats and 100% of the pow­er. I am encour­aged that the lead­ers of both oth­er par­ties have acknowl­edged this.”