Christy Clark, the Premier of British Columbia, has been scrambling like mad to keep control of the B.C. legislature.
It's not going to be easy, and it hasn't been pretty. The Liberals won 43 seats in the election in May, not enough to form a majority. The NDP won 41 seats and the Green Party got three; they plan to team up and defeat the Liberals in a vote of confidence this week, and then form an NDP government supported by the Greens.
In a last-ditch effort to stay in power, the Liberals delivered a Throne Speech last week that shamelessly plagiarized the election platforms of the NDP and the Green Party.
Child-care subsidies, money for mass transit, rafts of public housing and other progressive bounty were suddenly promised by a Liberal government that, during the election campaign, had preached fiscal rectitude in stern tones.
How was this turn around possible? Simple, apparently. The Liberals rechecked the province's financial situation just prior to the Throne Speech and discovered that what, in April, had appeared "fragile and unpredictable," according to Finance Minister Mike de Jong, was now solid and stable enough to put a chicken in every pot, in every affordable home, at the end of every brand new light-rail line.
As well, the Liberals now say they will ban donations to political parties from unions and corporations, and bring in limits on the size of donations from individuals. This, after insisting for years there was not a thing wrong with corporations that do business with the government, or which have financial stakes in its decisions, writing five-figure cheques to the long-ruling Liberal Party, or with letting wealthy individuals buy exclusive access to Premier Clark for $10,000 a pop.
The Liberals delivered the news with a straight face. You are free to make whatever face feels appropriate to you.
But it is important to remember that, as inconsistent as the Liberals are proving to be, they are just practising politics as usual in a hung parliament. To form a government, two or more parties need to co-operate, and that means compromise.
It is therefore legitimate for the Liberals to present policies designed to win the support of the Greens, whose three seats are the kingmakers. The Liberals' nakedly ruthless volte-face may be hard to take, but there is no rule that says they have to roll over without a fight.
The bigger issue for the Liberals is what will happen to them if, as most expect, their gambit fails and they lose the confidence vote.
If the NDP and the Greens form a government that lasts, and they begin to implement their platforms, British Columbians will need politicians in Victoria who spare a thought for budgetary restraint. Will the Liberals be able to regroup as B.C.'s version of a fiscally conservative party, or have they painted themselves, not to mention B.C. taxpayers, into a corner?