• Home
  • About
    • About Christopher di Armani
    • Disclosure Statement
    • Code of Ethics
    • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Gun Laws 101
  • FPO Violators
  • Store
  • Donate
  • Hire Me

Christopher di Armani.com

In Praise of Individual Rights and Freedoms

  • Top 25
  • Big Brother
    • Access To Information
    • Bureaucratic Incompetence
    • Bureaucrat’s Rule #1
    • Censorship
    • Feeding at the Government Trough
    • Lemonade Freedom
  • Common Sense
    • Expressions of Gratitude
    • Good Samaritans
    • Good Stuff
    • In Memoriam — Remembering our Heros
    • Life
    • Personal Responsibility
    • Politically Correct Madness
  • Courts
    • Abusive Prosecutions
    • Civil Forfeiture
    • Human Rights Tribunals
    • Judicial Corruption
    • Justice Denied
    • Justice System Abuses
    • Police Sentencing Double-Standards
    • Prosecutorial Misconduct
    • SLAPP Lawsuits
  • Crime
    • Abuse of Trust
    • Canadian Mass Murders
    • Firearm Prohibition Orders
    • Human Depravity
    • Immigration Issues
    • Racism
    • Restraining Orders
    • Sexual Predators
    • Violent Criminals
    • Wrongful Convictions
  • Guns
    • Concealed Carry
    • Dial 9-1-1 and Die
    • Firearms Act
    • Fun Gun Stuff
    • Gun Control
    • Gun-Free Zones
    • Gun Politics
    • Gun Registration
    • Negligent Discharges
    • Target Shooting Competitions
  • Islam
    • Canadian Islamic Disgraces
    • Islamic Terrorism
    • Radical Islam
    • Sharia Law
    • The Religion Of Peace
  • Police
    • Abuse of Police Authority
    • Filming Police
    • Great Police Officers
    • Officer Down
    • Police Brutality
    • Police Corruption
    • Police Misconduct
    • RCMP Accountability
    • RCMP Hall of Shame
    • Warrantless Searches
  • Politics
    • Elections
    • Ethics in Politics
    • Political Antics
    • Political Corruption
    • Social Justice
    • Stupid Human Tricks
    • Union Bay Improvement District
  • Rights
    • Charter of Rights and Freedoms
    • Constitutional Violations
    • Freedom of Assembly
    • Freedom of Religion
    • Freedom of Speech
    • Property Rights
    • Privacy Rights
    • Self-Defense
    • Unreasonable Search and Seizure

Will BC Premier John Horgan Call an Early Election?

Published September 21, 2020 by Christopher di Armani Filed Under: Ethics in Politics, Political Antics, Politics


UPDATE: 12:15pm. Usually it takes longer than 5 hours for me to be proven correct. LOL

At 11:00am this morning, BC Premier John Horgan announced his request to dissolve the Legislature was granted, placing the province into a fall election campaign where ballots will be cast on October 24th.

 


 

That’s the question running wild in BC’s political circles right now, and its answer depends on many factors, of which John Horgan’s character is arguably the biggest.

Is John Horgan a man of his word?

Will he honour his signed commitment to all British Columbians?

These are two very simple questions, yet advance troops are already making the argument that keeping his word and honouring his signed commitment is not necessary.

Why make the argument if the answer to both questions is unequivocally “No” ?

Horgan and Weaver proudly held up copies of the 2017 Confidence and Supply Agreement (CASA) before the people of British Columbia, looked us in the eye and guaranteed us we would have a stable provincial government until the next scheduled election.

John Horgan and Andrew Weaver Sign the 2017 Confidence and Supply Agreement that Made Horgan Premier of BC
John Horgan and Andrew Weaver Sign the 2017 Confidence and Supply Agreement that made John Horgan the Premier of British Columbia.  –Photo credit: BC NDP  

The relevant elements of the 2017 Confidence and Supply Agreement (CASA) are below.

  1. Should the Lieutenant Governor invite the Leader of the BC New Democrats to form a new government, this agreement will continue until the next scheduled election.
  2. The Leader of the New Democrats will not request a dissolution of the Legislature during the term of this agreement, except following the defeat of a motion of confidence.
  3. The BC Green MLAs will neither move, nor vote non-confidence during the term of this agreement, so long as the principle of good faith and no surprises has been observed.

Andrew Weaver, now the former leader of the BC Green Party, says he is absolutely fine with tearing up the CASA agreement today.

“Were Premier Horgan to call an election I would unequivocally say his reasons to do so would not be a violation of CASA.”

This is a very different Andrew Weaver than the one who signed the agreement three years ago, that much is clear. That Andrew Weaver would have died on this hill, not burrowed under it to find a more comfortable political grave.

These political machinations don’t matter to many British Columbians because they already believe John Horgan is about to prove he is just like every other premier this province has ever elected.

Since B.C. was founded in 1858, we’ve stumbled from one integrity-challenged premier to the next without missing a beat.

But…

Will British Columbia voters punish John Horgan in an early election for breaking his word to them?

Will British Columbia voters even care that John Horgan broke his word to them?

The answer to both questions is likely “No.”

Why?

Long before the COVID pandemic hit, British Columbians were apathetic about provincial elections.

Since 1996, British Columbia’s average voter turnout is a pathetic 56%.

It will probably be lower in a pandemic election unless voters are really angry.

 

Does John Horgan’s Word Matter?

I see no reason to believe voters will punish John Horgan for breaking the very public vow that propelled him into the Premier’s Office in 2017.

Neither does Angus Reid Institute, one of Canada’s larger polling companies.

On September 4, 2020, Angus Reid published data which suggests if John Horgan called a snap election tomorrow, he would ride the electoral wave into a comfortable majority with 48% of decided voters behind him.

Unfortunately for Horgan, one third of those polled said they were not comfortable voting in person during the pandemic. Fully 20% of NDP supporters included in that poll are not comfortable with in-person voting.

These two numbers may put a damper on John Horgan’s opportunistic plans to win a majority government.

But those two numbers are probably not the ones that matter most to Horgan and his advisors.

  • John Horgan’s approval rating is high with BC voters, and higher than any other premier in Canada, according to two recent Angus Reid studies. Horgan’s approval rating has nowhere to go but down.
  • The BC Liberal Party let by Andrew Wilkinson is, by many accounts, in complete disarray.

But even those two facts may not be the deciding factor either.

I think the one enticement John Horgan will find hardest to resist is the carrot New Brunswick voters dangled enticingly in front of him on September 14th.

 

The Big Prize

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs’ gambled his government’s future on his snap election call in the midst of the COVID pandemic.

His gamble paid off.

He won.

And he won BIG.

Voters rewarded Higgs’ with a comfortable majority government.

This gold ring, the possibility of an NDP majority government, is probably the only thing John Horgan can see right now in the wake of the New Brunswick election results.

Pride goeth before the fall, one famous book reminds us, and this may well be Horgan’s undoing.

New Brunswick’s 66% voter turnout on September 14th is about average for their past five provincial elections – and is a full 11% higher than BC’s average dating back over 25 years.

 

Does John Horgan’s Integrity Matter?

Given what we witnessed in the 2019 federal election, the answer is an unequivocal “Hell, No!”

Despite Justin Trudeau’s

  • endless string of ethics violations,
  • an even longer string of broken 2015 election promises,
  • wearing of Blackface so many times he cannot recall, and
  • accusations of sexual impropriety dogging him from long before he entered politics…

Canadians still re-elected him and his Liberal government, albeit to a minority. The important point is he was re-elected despite his many glaring and highly publicized faults.

John Horgan is no Justin Trudeau, not that it will matter in the next provincial election.

 

BC’s Fixed Election Date

In an attempt to end unnecessary elections by opportunistic politicians, in 2001 the BC Legislature passed a law fixing the dates of all future elections.

Every four years, beginning on May 17, 2005, British Columbians went to the polls on the second Tuesday in May. Horgan’s government shifted Election Day to the Third Saturday in October, meaning our next provincial election is set for October 23rd, 2021.

Unless Premier Horgan wants to gamble his government, like Blaine Higgs did, in an attempt to grab The Big Prize.

 


What do you think? 

Will BC voters care that Horgan broke his signed promise to British Columbians? If they do, will they punish him at the polls if he calls a snap election this fall?

Or are most voters far more concerned with keeping a roof over their heads and food in their children’s bellies to care about the antics of politicians in Victoria?

Please let me know in the comments section below.


 

Author

  • Christopher di Armani
    Christopher di Armani

    Christopher di Armani is a freedom-loving Amazon bestselling author and current events commentator from Lytton, BC, Canada, who strives to awaken the passion for liberty inside every human being.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Tags: Andrew Weaver, BC Premier John Horgan, Confidence and Supply Agreement (CASA), early election, minority government, New Bruinswick election

Did you find value in this article?

If you found this article useful or it contained valuable information and you want to thank me, the best way is to buy me a coffee or two.

1. Send an Interac eTransfer to author @ christopherdiarmani.net (remove spaces)

2. Send via PayPal using this link: https://www.paypal.me/ThatLibertyGuy

3. Use your credit card in my online store to support me with a one-time donation, a monthly recurring donation, or an annual donation. See these links for all the details about the thank-you gifts I offer my supporters.

Comments

  1. Norma (Davis) Cook says

    September 21, 2020 at 5:47 am

    Just a quick note to point out that the Premier of New Brunswick is Blaine Higgs (not Higgins). As a resident of New Brunswick, I am happy with the results of our recent election and hope it is indicative of a future win for the Conservative Party of Canada in the next federal election.

    Reply
    • Christopher di Armani says

      September 21, 2020 at 12:19 pm

      Thanks for the correction, Norma! My apologies to Mr. Higgs and all New Brunswickers for the mistake, now corrected.

      Reply
  2. peter bolten says

    September 21, 2020 at 8:14 pm

    I don’t think voters will mind that John Horgan will call a early election Chris. When it comes to broken words and unethical actions and detestable control , the former BC Liberals did the whole province of BC a disservice many times over. Need I say the huge deficit left by the ICBC accounting? The Use of BC Hydro to fudget the provincial budget and cast us all into a decades long red deficit.
    Flipping TFLs [ tree farm licenses ] into private real estate.
    Ignoring the lower mainland Opioid/chinese fentanyl/ Real Estate-casino laundering and resultant gun crimes as outlined in a special report by a former RCMP official. Many people dying of overdoses related to that messy equation, and the BC Liberals KNEW it. Did nothing.
    Then my Liberal MLA breaking her word to me and others that she would build local bicycle and pedestrian routes to alleviate the horrendously dangerous streets here and development problems that clashes with alternate transportation issues…connectivity. Now things here are irreversibly worse.[ Coincidentally this is now one of the various long term solutions called for by scientists to lessen the the problems with mass transport-social distancing hazards regarding virus transmission. More bike lanes]. She was also the one that pulled free bus passes from handicapped and low income people.
    So, I do wonder what the turn out will be over all. I agree that both in Federal and Provincial elections the turnout factor is not something to be dismissed… seems that many younger people are disillusioned by the the political elite and the lies and the stress of living these days with economic and financial inequalities. A pressing problem that just somehow got swept off the radar when COVID appeared and took our attention away from that and the climate issues .
    And I hope that the federal Conservatives do not ignore this low-turn-out factor problem and try to appeal to the disillusioned when the next federal election is called.

    Reply
    • Christopher di Armani says

      September 21, 2020 at 8:34 pm

      I agree, Peter.

      While Horgan is the latest in a long line of BC premiers without integrity, this is the norm since British Columbia was founded. The problem with low expectations is someone is always willing to sink to them.

      Barring something exceptional, I think Horgan will get exactly what he wants out of this – a majority NDP government.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to my commentaries

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Latest Tweets

Follow @ThatLibertyGuy

Christopher di Armani 🇨🇦 🇺🇸
@ThatLibertyGuy

  • New comment: Edmonton Police Service Constable Adam Kube Refused Any Appeal In His Termination for Corrupt Practices christopherdiarmani.com/10846/police/p…
    about 1 week ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • A big shout out to @CandiceMalcolm, @AndrewLawton, @AnthonyFurey and the entire team at @TrueNorthCentre for sendin… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
    about 2 weeks ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • For earthly princes lay aside their power when they rise up against God, and are unworthy to be reckoned among the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
    about 4 weeks ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • New comment: Paul Rogan Passes: The End of an Era christopherdiarmani.com/18908/common-s…
    about 1 month ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite
  • To restore common sense to our nation, this is the path. The political left works around the clock and around the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
    about 1 month ago
    Reply Retweet Favorite

Most Popular This Week

  • All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
  • Yvon Mercier: From RCMP Depot Trainer to Double-Murderer
  • How did Live-Streaming Rape Become a ‘Thing’?
  • Dale Merle Nelson’s 1970 Murder Spree in Creston, British Columbia
  • Escaped Mental Patient William Bernard Lepine and the 1972 Kettle Valley Murders
  • OPP Sergeant Jamie Gillespie Pleads Guilty to attempting to intercept private communications
  • Edmonton Police Service Constable Adam Kube Refused Any Appeal In His Termination for Corrupt Practices

Most Popular This Month

  • Yvon Mercier: From RCMP Depot Trainer to Double-Murderer
  • All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing
  • How Many Uniformed Mall Thugs does it Take to Subdue One Young Woman?
  • Dale Merle Nelson’s 1970 Murder Spree in Creston, British Columbia
  • OPP Sgt. Mike Dolderman’s Sexual Assault Trial Delayed Again
  • OPP Sergeant Jamie Gillespie Pleads Guilty to attempting to intercept private communications
  • How did Live-Streaming Rape Become a ‘Thing’?

© 2004–2023 ChristopherDiArmani.com | All Rights Reserved

Close

Buy me a cup of coffee

A ridiculous amount of coffee was consumed in the process of writing these articles. If you enjoy my work, please buy me a coffee or two to keep me going!