Clark remaining Liberal leader, will test House confidence

If incumbent Premier Christy Clark is going away, she’s going down swinging.

Clark held a press conference Tuesday afternoon outside the Premier’s Vancouver office to confirm she’s staying on as Liberal leader and testing the confidence of the House.

“We have the duty to meet the House and test its confidence, constitutional convention tells us that. I intend to do that in very short order, certainly before the end of, possibly towards the beginning of the month of June.”

A government needs a majority of seats to pass the “test of confidence,” something the Liberals don’t have on their own.

“Should the government fail the test of confidence in the House, as seems likely, I would be given the job of leader of the opposition. I am more than ready and willing to take that job on.”

Negotiations with Greens

When asked how negotiations with Green Party leader Andrew Weaver went over the past week, Clark was blunt.

“I would say they were unsuccessful.”

Clark was also asked why she wasn’t at the bargaining table.

“Because our negotiating team was led by, as you know, Brad Bennett and our House leader and other members. I was in regular contact and I was prepared to go to the table but negotiations didn’t get that far.”

Despite the Greens choosing to partner with the NDP and not the Liberals, Clark says she feels “good about the way (the Liberals) conducted negotiations at the table” and feels the party “went about it honourably and in good faith.”

Clark added she wouldn’t ask the Lieutenant Governor to go back to the polls.

Next Step

As for what the future holds, regardless of how the test of confidence plays out, Clark hopes the steps are taken in the public’s eye.

“If there is going to be a transfer of power in this province, and it certainly looks like there will be, it shouldn’t be done behind closed doors. It should happen in public, as constitutional convention tells us it should. It should happen in the Peoples’ House with 87 members elected by British Columbians to our Legislature making that decision.”