Vaughn Palmer: Weaver's move to independent status raises party's, rivals' eyebrows
Credit to Author: Gord Kurenoff| Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2020 01:48:54 +0000
VICTORIA — The B.C. Greens tried Wednesday to put the best face on the news that former leader and party builder Andrew Weaver was leaving their caucus to sit as an independent.
“We support Weaver in his decision to sit as an independent so he can attend to the various health challenges affecting his family,” said the Greens’ interim leader Adam Olsen. “A person’s commitment to their family needs to come before those to their caucus.”
But the statement did not begin to explain why it was necessary for Weaver to leave the caucus to devote more time to his wife, who is dealing with cancer.
The Greens would surely have allowed him to take a compassionate leave from caucus duties. Olsen himself was excused from one major committee assignment at the legislature, after pleading family responsibilities.
The New Democrats and B.C. Liberals would have readily excused Weaver from any committee responsibilities. There was no need for him to abandon his party to reduce his workload.
Closer to the mark was the strong hint from Weaver that he wanted to take some political distance from the party as it proceeds to select a permanent successor.
“I believe that it is important for the B.C. Green party to develop a new vision and voice independent from mine. My presence in the B.C. Green caucus could hinder that independence,” said Weaver in a statement posted on his MLA blog.
Weaver had earlier signalled his intentions to step away from the Greens once he vacated the leadership, as planned on Jan. 6.
“The day I am no longer leader, I will go non-partisan,” he told editor Maclean Kay of the Orca online news service. “I didn’t join a party until I was a member of the Green party, and I will resign my membership.”
The distancing also extended to Weaver’s views on the coming leadership race, as when he told Global TV that “it would benefit the party to have a leader from the Lower Mainland.”
This at a time when Green MLA Sonia Furstenau was widely expected to seek the party leadership.
Like Weaver and Olsen, Furstenau represents a constituency on Vancouver Island. With Olsen ruling himself out as a candidate, Furstenau could be the high-profile favourite of many Greens. But Weaver appears to be less than overwhelmed with her leadership qualities.
Adam Olsen (l), Andrew Weaver (r) and Sonia Furstenau in 2017
Then there were Weaver’s damning-with-faint-praise comments on the membership of the party he led to its best showing in the last election.
“It’s really been really tough with the Green party,” he told the Orca. “Probably, the most difficult part is the level of political naiveté. I mean, it’s a lovely level of naiveté — lovely in that I wish there was more of this. But it’s a bit like the Christians being fed to the lions.”
Or a bit like Weaver himself being fed rhetorically to the lions on social media by Green supporters upset with his compromises on matters like Site C and proportional representation.
Apart from the blow to Green prestige, Weaver’s premature departure could also have financial consequences for the caucus.
Two members are sufficient for the Greens to retain party standing, so Olsen and Furstenau will continue to be in line to receive premium pay as leader and house leader, respectively.
But funding for staffing and research is formula-driven, based on the number of MLAs in the caucus. Weaver’s move would appear to reduce the budget by a third.
Both Weaver and Olsen emphasized the shift did not threaten the power-sharing agreement with the NDP.
Weaver said he was still bound by his signature on the confidence and supply agreement, as it is known. He vowed to continue to uphold the government on confidence matters, the key one being the vote on the budget.
But for how long? Weaver himself has already opened the door to the possibility that if the party chooses an outsider in the leadership race that wraps up in June, the newcomer might ask him to give up his seat in the legislature.
“When new leaders come in, the honourable thing to do, if that new leader is not already an MLA, is to step aside and let them (run),” he has said.
Honourable yes, but risky politically. The resulting byelection would not necessarily be won by a Green — or a New Democrat for that matter.
Given Weaver’s tendency to make things up as he goes along, the New Democrats have been preparing for a shift in the balance of power.
Premier John Horgan’s senior political adviser, Bob Dewar, warned New Democrats of that possibility in closing remarks to the party convention last November.
“Every day we have to have the Greens’ support in the legislature in order to get all (our) stuff completed and passed. Any time that minority situation could fail.”
The premier reinforced the point in a year-end interview. “We don’t know what will emerge from the Green caucus,” he told Mike Smyth of the Province. “So I tell my colleagues: ‘Work today like it’s your last day.’”
But even if Horgan saw it coming, he can’t be happy that his mercurial partner in power sharing has taken another step into unknown territory.
Nor can the Greens find anything to celebrate in the premature exit from their caucus of the leader who brought them into the circle of power in the first place.
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