Parliamentary Democracy 101 in British Columbia — Know the Rules and Ignore the Bullshit

Whatever happens, it's not a coup. Don't call it a coup.

With 49,000 mail-in and absentee ballots still to be counted in British Columbia, the result of the province’s general election is still to be determined. There are also two recounts to be completed in ridings where the outcome was razor-thin. Parties may request further recounts until October 22nd. The final count is scheduled for October 26 to 28 as Elections BC carries out integrity checks.

With the current seat count at 46 for the BC New Democratic Party, 45 for the BC Conservative Party, and 2 for the BC Greens, who governs the province could be decided by ballots still to be counted or by recounts, perhaps followed by plenty of horse trading in a flurry of meetings and texts and phone calls.

A majority government takes 47 seats in the province’s legislature, and anything short of that will yield a minority government, and one that may be precarious. The BC Conservatives have already vowed to be obstructionist should the BC NDP hold on to government — indeed, they have promised to take them down at the earliest opportunity.

The outcome of the 2024 race is, so far, remarkably similar to the 2017 vote, which took weeks to resolve and which ultimately returned a BC NDP government to power after the now-defunct BC Liberals and premier Christy Clark tried and failed to win the confidence of the legislature. During that process, there were plenty of questions about what was legal, democratic, right, and fair, and those questions are already being raised once again as people misunderstand parliamentary democracy in Canada — by accident or deliberately.

If you’re looking for a deeper dive into the rules, you should read Philippe Lagassé’s article “The Crown and Government Formation: Conventions, Practices, Customs, and Norms.” Lagassé is one of the country’s most reliable — and public — experts on parliamentary governance and his article gets into the nuances conventions, practices, customs, and norms.

I won’t go that deep here. Instead, I’ll provide some bullet points as a general overview that you should keep in mind (and share) in the days to come:

• The province currently has a premier and a government led by David Eby of the BC NDP. He remains the premier until he quits or is dismissed by the province’s lieutenant governor. Sorry, no anarchy for now.

• The premier may choose to meet the legislature, no matter what the final seat count is, and test by vote whether he has the confidence of a majority of members — even if his party has fewer seats than the BC Conservatives (especially since the BC Greens are unlikely to work with the blue side). He could also choose not to test confidence and resign as premier, but this is unlikely.

• The number of seats the BC NDP has won is ultimately incidental to the most important question: Can the governing party command confidence in the legislature? Strictly speaking, the number of votes the party won is utterly irrelevant from the point of view of governing. What matters is the capacity to command confidence, or not.

• If Eby has the confidence of the legislature, he governs; if not, the BC Conservatives may be asked to try to form a government if they have a shot at doing so. If they can’t even try to form a government, or if they try and lose a confidence vote, the lieutenant governor will dissolve the legislature and there will be another election (god help us).

• One party has to put up a speaker, which will bring them down a seat in caucus. In 2017, there was plenty of drama over this before BC Liberal member Daryl Plecas stood for the job. The legislature can’t do anything until a speaker is chosen, and this may take some time. If a speaker can’t be chosen, there will be another election.

• It is perfectly legitimate for a party to enter in an agreement with another party to gain the support they need to govern — this agreement is known as a supply and confidence agreement (or confidence and supply agreement). We saw such a deal between the BC NDP and BC Greens in 2017, and the federal Liberals and New Democrats more recently.

• In such agreements, typically undertaken in minority parliaments, the parties strike a bargain which makes the legislature more predictable with the smaller party or parties gaining certain considerations (like policy goals and bills) in exchange for supporting the government on matters of confidence. (If a government loses a vote on a matter of confidence, such as a vote on the throne speech or the budget, the government falls). Supply and confidence agreements are perfectly common, legal, and legitimate.

• It is also perfectly legitimate for a party to enter into a formal coalition with another party to form a coalition government. A coalition is different from a supply and confidence agreement insofar as in this scenario, members of another party or parties will take Cabinet positions and become part of the government. In a supply and confidence agreement, other parties remain outside government. Coalition governments are common around the world in parliamentary democracies, though they are uncommon in Canada. Nonetheless, they are absolutely legal and legitimate.

All of this may sound arcane, it may seem like the purview of dusty tomes and pedants, but it’s really quite important. The rules of government formation determine what’s possible, what’s not, who governs, and who doesn’t. Understanding and respecting the rules — or not — shapes possibilities, and the integrity and legitimacy of our parliaments and elections. These in turn shape the policies we get.

Politicians, other partisans, and commentators will be throwing a lot of bullshit around in the days to come as parties jockey for power. In the process, they will discredit themselves and our parliamentary democracy. Ignore them and stick to the facts. Soon enough the final results of the election will be sorted. At least for now.