Vicki Huntington was re-elected here this spring on a platform of common sense, non-partisan governance. That premise will be put to the test now that B.C.'s only independent MLA has reintroduced a private member's bill to change when B.C. holds provincial elections.
Part of a Democratic Reform Agenda put forward by a trio of independents early last year, the bill aims to move the fixed election date from the spring to the fall to ensure the provincial budget is adequately debated during an election year.
"I am proposing a practical change to B.C.'s fixed election date that would prevent the budget from being misused and disrupted every four years as an electioneering tool," Huntington said last week while re-introducing the legislation.
The bill makes abundant sense as you don't have to go too far back to see how election year budgets can be about as accurate as a pre-election poll these days. In 2009, the Liberals went into that May's provincial election with a budget that had a projected deficit of $495 million, a figure that doubled within a week of voters marking their ballots and ballooned to almost $3 billion by Sept. 1 of that year.
This time around we were told the budget would be balanced, and without adequate opportunity to scrutinize it, voters were left to make up their own minds on that one. I suspect we'll know the real state of the province's finances soon enough, but it would have been nice to have been privy to that information prior to going to the polls.
It's clear that B.C., which was the first province to introduce fixed election dates, is now out of step with the rest of Canada. Of the nine provinces that have pre-determined dates, only two - B.C. and Alberta - conduct their elections in the spring. All the others opt for either late September or early October, with the exception of Saskatchewan, which sends voters to the polls on the first Monday of a balmy Prairie November.
Should B.C. follow the majority, as Huntington suggests, it would mean the budget wouldn't interfere with an election campaign and would also allow for legislative oversight prior to the writ being dropped. It makes sense, but I have to wonder whether that's enough to make it happen.
Not only would approving the bill recognize the wisdom of an independent, something the Liberals have been loath to do, but a fall election also means the governing party will be held to account for the province's finances at election time.
