Vaughn Palmer: Both Weaver and NDP a bit restless about Green party leadership change

Credit to Author: Stephen Snelgrove| Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2019 01:20:33 +0000

VICTORIA — The Green party’s provincial council is planning next week to name an interim successor to take over from leader Andrew Weaver when he steps down early in the new year.

The council was supposed to make the call last week. But on the scheduled date, Dec. 6, the party announced the council had deferred the decision for another two weeks.

“This extension allows the council to consult with stakeholders who could not be reached this past week,” said Sav Harwood, chair of the 12-member council.

“We continue to be on track with plans for the leadership contest and expect the rules to be published at the same time as the interim leader is announced.”

The interim leader will serve until the party confirms a permanent successor at a convention in Nanaimo at the end of June.

“An interim leader is not eligible for the position of party leader,” according to the party constitution. “But an interim leader may resign 90 days prior to a leadership vote in order to be eligible.”

Weaver is restless for the party to get on with the process of succession.

Back on Oct. 7 he announced he would vacate the leadership and not seek re-election as MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head, the constituency he has represented since 2013.

Then on Nov. 27 he updated his plans to say he would give up the leadership when the formal race to succeed him gets underway.

He’d initially indicated his intention to stick around until the party chose a permanent successor. But upon reflection, he realized he should get out of the way to allow a freer debate among the leadership candidates.

“I felt that I would be a distraction if I am still the official spokesperson for a party while others are articulating a vision for the future direction of a party,” Weaver said to broadcaster Al Ferraby on CFAX radio.

Weaver suggested he would henceforth take on the role of a party elder, offering advice to the up-and-comers.

“Really the easiest thing for the smoothest transition is to put in place that caretaker and to move into an advisory role and assist the transition.”

Weaver also told reporters he was aware of three Greens who were contemplating a run for the leadership. But he did not name names, nor indicate if the group includes either of the other two Green MLAs, Sonia Furstenau and Adam Olsen.

He has more recently expressed the hope that the party membership would consider choosing a candidate from outside its southern Vancouver Island power base: “I think it would benefit the party to have a leader from the Lower Mainland,” he told Global TV this week.

It remains to be seen whether the outspoken Weaver would hold his tongue if one of the leadership candidates were to differ publicly with the stands he has taken.

His decision to support the New Democrats, despite them going ahead with Site C and LNG, was controversial in some quarters of the party.

He was also criticized for his hands-off approach when the New Democrats put together the failed referendum on proportional representation.

The most provocative question at the Nov. 27 press conference was how would Weaver “adjust to not being the centre of attention.”

That drew a knowing laugh from one of Premier John Horgan’s political advisers, who was standing in the back of the room during the announcement.

The Green leader had, of course, advised his NDP partners of his intentions in advance. Still, both of Horgan’s senior political advisers, Geoff Meggs and Bob Dewar, showed up to monitor the mercurial Weaver’s comments in person.

The New Democrats must be wondering how leadership transition in the Green party could affect the working relationship with the government.

Dewar had already gone on record on that score.

“Every day we have to have the Greens’ support in the legislature in order to get all (our) stuff completed and passed,” he said in a closing wake-up call to delegates at the Nov. 22-24 NDP convention. “Any time that minority situation could fail.”

He mentioned both the possibility of some New Democrats missing key votes as well as the prospect of leadership change among the Greens.

Weaver himself acknowledged the uncertainty this week. He was asked about the possibility that a new party leader could seek to repudiate the power-sharing agreement that commits the three Green MLAs to supporting the New Democrats until the next scheduled election on Oct. 16, 2021.

“I don’t think I can answer this right now,” the departing Green leader told Richard Zussman of Global TV. “The premier and I have been grappling with it. These relationships take time to build. They take trust.”

Theoretically-speaking, Weaver agreed that a new leader would not necessarily feel bound by the terms of the power-sharing agreement, as signed by himself, Furstenau and Olsen.

But their signatures would still be on the paper, “so there would probably be a revolt within caucus — hopefully things can just continue on.”

The New Democrats, not wanting the timing of the next election to be taken out of their hands, would surely share Weaver’s hopes.

Still, as 2019 ends, all three parties in the legislature are contemplating a shift in the political landscape.

For if the NDP-Green partnership were to be disrupted by circumstance or design, the province could then be facing an early election.

Vpalmer@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/VaughnPalmer

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