Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/26/meet-john-horgan-and-the-bc-nd.html
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Checking in from Burnaby, living near the pipeline terminal and working just by the big oil storage bins that’ll inevitably explode and turn SFU into a horrifying inferno.
The role of Andrew Weaver’s Green party should not be understated! They provided the critical vote in a historically unexpected effective minority coalition, something that has not often (ever?) been a stable arrangement in BC politics.
It’s well worth mentioning that we’re having a referendum, the deadline passes in a couple of weeks, about implementing ranked voting. Getting rid of FPTP will go a long way toward removing the stranglehold of two-party politics in BC. We’re lucky only in that the two parties change pretty fluidly, but it’s still not ideal having the votes of ~60% of the population going unrepresented in Parliament.
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Canada wins again, dang it.
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Ugh. This is so horrifying. I’m checking in from the islands, where this and the resident orcas remain top of the seething-with-fury list. Just in case you East Van/Burnabites feel abandoned. 
But I’ll also add to the list the immediate drop in MSP premiums. And the fact that Horgan’s wife wasn’t around when the election was called; she was at home working in the garden. He phoned her and left a message saying ‘hi, it’s the premier calling’… 
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Proportional, not necessarily ranked. STV within a proportional framework was merely one of the options.
Personally, I would rather have seen more variety of options than “what flavour of Prop Rep would you like, two of the three that we just thought up and no one has tried, before.”
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I’m mostly pleased with how the NDP is handling things and I completely agree that the reason is because the Greens are holding their feet to the fire and pushing them to do better. It’s a coalition government at its best. Another reason why we need proportional representation.
Is there anyone here from BC who hasn’t voted in the referendum?? You now have an extra two weeks to mail in your ballot…do it!
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I have not been pleased with the Greens like how they opposed raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and have generally not been very economically left wing.
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“North America’s most progressive government” is a bit of a low bar as Horgan has been kind of disappointing by BCNDP standards. Somebody bring back the spirit of Dave Barrett please.
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Done, weeks ago. So I assumed my ballot has successfully navigated the moving target of postal strikes. 
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Condos are vertical stationary monorails que dérailler.
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I always considered Greens to be Conservatives with an environmental slant. I’ve never seen anything about their economic policies that says ‘left wing’.
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Excellent. I keep talking about the referendum to friends and acquaintances. I’m shocked at how many haven’t heard it’s going on. This doesn’t bode well for the results.
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The numbers released today show it’s shot up, from terrible to approaching not bad; just over 1/3 have responded…
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Other than those weird ads that pop up on Facebook, which honestly sound like two buddies launching sarcastic attack ads at each other as a joke, I’ve seen almost no coverage whatsoever of the referendum. I wouldn’t fault anyone for not knowing it’s happening.
Hmm. I’m hearing spots from Elections Canada almost hourly on the radio, especially since the deadline was extended.
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I’m sure it depends on which media you consume. If you don’t listen to CBC or local radio, read local papers, or follow local politics, then I’m sure it’s easy to miss. I’m sure a significant portion of the population is part of that now.
I really think that the more people who give a shit (especially younger people), the more likely it’s going to pass.
We dropped ours off just in case they got delayed.
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I guess it depends on who has heard of it – I don’t remember if this one had a threshold. Like, if only 5 people voted, 3 in favour of PR and 2 who wanted to keep first past the post, would we still switch?
There’s no Service BC where I live, but I’ve been asking to see if there’s interest in picking up people’s ballots and going over mid next week to bring them…
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I can’t remember either whether it was 60-40 or 50%+1…
