The narrow victory for the New Democratic Party (NDP) over the Conservatives in B.C. (47 seats to 44 seats respectively) has Premier David Eby hinting that the role of speaker for the legislature could be filled by one of the opposition parties.
“I’m sure the Greens would be able to put forward a good speaker. Maybe the Conservatives,” Eby said during the conference. “We’re not ruling anything out.”
Naming a speaker from one of the opposing parties would mean Eby doesn’t lose one of his MLA’s votes in the legislature. Speakers in the legislature do not vote except to break a tie. Pending the outcome of a judicial review in two ridings, Eby could be leading a minority government, making each MLA’s vote valuable in moving the NDP agenda forward. The NDP will need to hold onto all 47 seats to keep a majority.
“It makes the legislature just easier to run if you’re not giving up one of your MLAs to the speaker position,” Sanjay Jeram, senior lecturer in Simon Fraser University’s political department, told The Epoch Times in a phone interview.
Jeram said the NDP will want to avoid a scenario where every vote on legislation comes down to the speaker breaking the tie.
It’s something that Eby acknowledged is one of the first tasks for his government, telling reporters he does not intend to introduce legislation in the fall, but wants to have a speaker in place for a legislative sitting.
Speakers are elected by all MLAs in a secret ballot, senior political instructor at the University of Northern British Columbia Jason Morris said. It is common for those interested in the role to put their names forward and the MLA who becomes speaker does not have to be from the governing party.
“When it’s a thin majority, another party can be reached out to, to just make it easier when there are confidence votes,” Morris said during a phone interview with The Epoch Times. It’s also useful for the government in passing legislation to have as many MLA votes as possible, he said.
The speaker only votes when there’s a tie, said Morris, and “by convention, the speaker votes with the government, so no matter the party that the speaker represents, they’re going to vote according to the government’s desires,” Morris said.
Conservative Leader John Rustad says putting forward an MLA for speaker isn’t something he is interested in at this time.
“At this stage, I would not be looking at ... offering one of our members to be speaker to support the agenda that he [Eby] ran on.”
The Conservative Party leader did hint that he is open to working with the NDP on legislation that fits the Conservative platform.
“If David wanted to call me and say that he wants to move forward with significant parts of our agenda, maybe there’s something that we could be talking about,” Rustad said. “Should the NDP decide they want to push forward any part of their agenda that relates to what we’re trying to achieve, they'll find us as a partner.”
Whoever is chosen, Jeram said, it could be a tough job this session.
“If the campaign carries over into the legislative sessions, the house will be just an unruly place, and then the speaker will have to make some choices.”
The speaker’s job is to oversee debates between MLAs and contain the conflict in the legislature. They also have the authority to expel an MLA for unruly conduct.
“Being a speaker will be a little bit more of a tricky position in this context than it normally is,” Jeram said.
Morris agreed.
“The election campaign was a harder one and a divisive one, and if that attitude and that way of playing things out carries forth into the legislature, then we can look ahead for the role of a speaker to be really challenging,” he said.
“We could expect that the speaker would have a great amount of challenges to maintain order in a legislature that could be as raucous and divided as the electorate seems to be.”
