Wednesday, August 11, 2010

I did not see that one coming

The Chief Electoral Officer of BC has not certified the results of the Ant-HST petition as he should have today.   He has delayed till the courts rule on the legality of the act within the petition.

I think this is utterly insane and will cause significant political chaos.   The public behind the anti-HST petition is going to go into full recall mode and they will be able to recall numerous MLAs given the organization they have the mood of the public.

I believe we will see an election in BC in the spring of 2011 because the government will have lost too many MLAs and no other party will have enough to govern.   I expect the BC Conservatives to win a number of the ensuing by-elections.

The only two things that could mitigate this would the government coming out and saying it will go to referendum in any case and the resignation of Gordon Campbell.   I hate to see him leave as he is one of the best premiers BC has ever seen, but if he does not, it will be very hard to save the government.

Life is going to be politically crazy in BC for the next year.

1 comment:

stephen elliott-buckley said...

The sooner the BC Conservative party can demonstrate consistent message control and create enough of a separation from the federal Conservative's support of the HST, they can credibly oppose it.

That should help get a few seats in the ledge, particularly if the NDP continues to not say they'll actually scrap the HST, which was the point of all of this after all.

I don't think we'll necessarily see an election, though. If more than 7 Liberal MLAs are recalled, the results of the by-elections could create a new majority or minority government without, I think, the need of a general election. Not to say that Campbell or his replacement couldn't call one anyway.

"One of the best premiers BC has ever seen"? I'll let that one go. :)