I’ve found that minority/coalition governments can actually be positive. When the 2017 B.C. election saw the centre-left electorate (about two thirds of votes cast) split among the provincial Green Party and NDP, I initially saw it as a great misfortune, as it allowed the governing conservative B.C. Liberal Party to slither up the middle.
But, soon after, the NDP and three Green MLAs coalesced to form a new bare-majority government, which for me became a best-case scenario: In doing so, it not only refreshingly replaced 16 long years of increasingly compromised B.C. Liberal rule with traditionally progressive NDP policies—it also forced the NDP minority government to implement some environmental protection measures I’m not sure it would’ve applied had it won the election on its own.
Claims that the NDP MLAs had to cater to every Green demand were proven wrong when, most notably, the controversial Site C Dam project went ahead, against the Greens’ protestations.
Thus, to me, it would be justified to have a Canadian Liberal minority government held to account by a coalescing NDP, and perhaps even Green MPs.
And it’s not only the left-wing parties that can coalesce, for the conservative entities can do so, too.
Frank Sterle Jr..
White Rock, B.C.
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