Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

ADAM OLSEN -- When we were first elected there was a lot of speculation that the minority government was weak and under constant threat of falling. That opinion has proven incorrect


We are at the end of our second Spring Legislative session.  It has been an interesting few months. There have been range of emotional issues and a few legislative firsts.

While we were disappointed that the B.C. NDP government and B.C. Liberal official opposition partnered up to pass a massive subsidy for the fossil fuel industry, I am very happy that the government’s update to the labour code passed unanimously.

Balancing interests
During the debate of the latter, the B.C. Green Caucus supported an opposition amendment to align the Bill with the B.C. NDP government’s expert panel.

My colleagues and I spent a lot of time considering the implications of this amendment. In the end, we believe the expert panel did a good job balancing the interests on both sides of this historically divisive issue and we are consistent in our support of their work and recommendations.


To that end, I want to highlight that a central feature of the advice of the panel was to stop the pendulum swings, or policy lurch, that characterizes labour policy in British Columbia. So, not only did the B.C. Green Caucus support a B.C. Liberal amendment for the first time to maintain the spirit of the government panel’s advice, the labour code amendment bill got unanimous support from all parties in the House.

Private Members Bills
There were a couple of other firsts we should celebrate. For the first time in modern history in British Columbia a private members Bill became law. This happened not once, but twice.

My colleague Andrew Weaver had two Bills pass - Bill M209 Business Corporations Amendment Act and Bill M206 Residential Tenancy Amendment Act. You can find details of these Bill's through the links directing you to Andrew's website.

When we were first elected there was a lot of speculation that the minority government was weak and under constant threat of falling. That opinion has proven incorrect. British Columbians are growing comfortable with our minority government. We have shown ourselves to be productive and far more stable than was initially thought.

Working together
This is how a legislature should work. Private members' legislation and opposition amendments should be part of governing a jurisdiction. For too long we have seen the impact of majority governments pushing their agenda through with no opportunity to amend, and even less opportunity for members of the opposition to have their initiatives heard.

Additionally, it's been evident that while there are different opinions on numerous issues, we have found a way to work together.

It's important to embrace diversity and a commitment to work through difficulties -- the people of British Columbia deserve a stable, mature and thoughtful government.




If you have been following along you might be wondering where my podcast went.

Well, one of the realities I am learning about this job is that by the end of the session there are many loose ends. My podcast is one of those loose ends. I'm sure when I get back into my constituency office more often, I will learn of others as well.

I have a handful of great conversations on sitting my computer. Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to produce them yet. So, in the next week or two I will return to publishing my Sunday podcasts.

Thank you for following along.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

GORDON F. D. WILSON: When The Trick Masquerades as The Treat

Thirty-seven years ago, Halloween 1987, I became the leader of the BC Liberal Party.   British Columbia was badly polarized. Social Credit held one side and the NDP the other. It had been twelve years, 1975, since Liberal MLAs Garde Gardom, Pat McGeer, and Alan Williams had walked away from their party to join Social Credit, one year after the lone Progressive Conservative MLA Hugh Curtis had abandoned his party to sit with Bill Bennett, the son and heir apparent to long-serving BC Premier, WAC Bennett.   An unwritten agreement by the biggest Canadian political shareholders, the federal Liberals and Conservatives, decided that if British Columbia was to remain a lucrative franchise from a revenue perspective, they couldn’t risk splitting the electoral vote and electing the real enemy, the NDP, so no resources would be used to finance either a Liberal or Conservative party provincially.   “There are two sides to every street,” I was told by a very prominent Canadian businessman who cont

FORSETH: You Have To Be A Bit Crazy

  Ward and his wife Carleen celebrating his win on election night.   In March of this year, I took on the role of Campaign Manager for BC Conservative candidate Ward Stamer.  It’s the third time I’ve had the opportunity as I took on the role for Peter Sharp in 2013, and for Dennis Giesbrecht in 2020. Now let me tell you, in the past, a BC Conservative campaign team generally consisted of myself, the candidate and one or two helpers – and very little in the way of a campaign budget. Thankfully, a benefit of having spent 30+ years in the broadcast media afforded me the ability to do ad copy and write candidate speeches, and prep both Dennis and Peter to deal with the media – it’s also something I have always enjoyed. That was part of my duties this time around as well, however having a team of a dozen and a half volunteers meant that for the first time we had people available to ID our supporters, put together and install campaign signs, distribute campaign literature, and help out at ou

Rustad will support policy for 'everyday' people, otherwise work to bring down NDP

  Conservative Party of B.C. John Rustad Tuesday (Oct. 29) said his party would support government policies that support "average, everyday working" persons in B.C., but also repeated earlier promises to bring down the B.C. NDP government under Premier David Eby. "If there are things that are moved forward that will improve lives for those people, we would be looking at support it," Rustad said. "But if he's going to carry forward with the destructive policies that he has, then yes, we are going to look at every opportunity possible to bring him down as soon as possible."  CLICK HERE for the full story

Labels

Show more