It may be a cool and soggy morning, but politically speaking things are heating up. The diversionary focus surrounds the issue of speaker. The Christy Clark BC Liberals profess that they are just playing by the rules, but that is more than a bit of a stretch.

They failed to win a majority from the May 9th election and while the BC NDP and BC Greens are prepared to govern we remain rudderless, at sea with Christy Clark still in the captain’s chair.

Christy Clark

The BC Liberal’s game is to stall, attempt to divide the Horgan-Weaver pact and create the impression that their efforts to actually form a government are doomed to fail.

Pay attention to Norman Spector’s role in this high stakes play.

The sly and entrenched former Gordon Campbell Chief of Staff and strategist may have disclosed internal discussions with his Green party client, according to Andrew Weaver, when he suggested that installing a BC Liberal as speaker predicated the Greens agreement to align with the BC NDP to defeat the BC Liberals and form a working alliance.

Norman Spector

Spector’s twitter comments seemingly sparked much of the discourse regarding the matter of the speaker.

Yesterday  Weaver stated although a BC Liberal speaker was desirable, it was not a deal breaker.  He emphasized during a Horgan-Weaver press conference that he remains committed to establishing a new BC NDP led government without further delay.

Andrew Weaver and John Horgan

Premier Christy Clark has agreed to appoint a speaker when the legislature is convened June 22nd. In any case it is the legislature that chooses the speaker which may or may not be the choice of the sitting premier.

The role of speaker is key to a functioning legislature and traditionally the appointment runs for four years, not at the whim of the premier.

This is where the puck might hit the sidewalk. If the term is entrenched then a new government would see 43 BC Liberals-minus the speaker at 42,  the NDP at 41 and the Greens with 3. That is enough to form and run a government.

Who knows what will transpire between now and the June 22nd legislative session, but as it stands now democracy has been beggared by the Clark Liberal’s stalling and game playing. Somebody call the cops!