Tuesday, December 07, 2010

One more thought on BC

Given that the leaders of both major parties in BC have been pushed out by factions in their caucus, it appears that elected members are more powerful there than elsewhere. If this is true, how much of it is because of fixed election dates? In the absence of these set elections, one can imagine party leaders holding more sway over risk averse caucus members who fear a snap election under an interim or a new leader. But now, with the election date set, members know how much time they have to elect a new leader if they push out the current head. This is speculation at best, but the hypothesis has some face validity, I think.

2 comments:

Dennis Rice said...

Peter, I'm not familiar with BC's election laws. Are they really set, or can the government still Harper them?

Peter Loewen said...

They can, though I think it would be very hard to do politically in a majority government.