i actually think that christy clark is doing the right thing in playing out the motions, in order to help voters understand what's happening. i'm not old enough to remember the peterson/rae coalition in ontario, but the failed dion/layton coalition clearly exposed severe deficits in the public's understanding of how the legislature functions. by going through the motions in real-time - losing a confidence vote and allowing the opposition an ability to form government - she's forcing the right-wing press to cover the process. hopefully, voters will walk away from the transfer of power with a better understanding of how the system works.

the worst thing that she can do is emulate what harper did - which was to basically go on tv and lie to people and confuse them into thinking he was being ousted.

to make the situation clear: a green-ndp coalition is about to remove the liberals from power.

...and i'll be keeping an eye on the way that the ndp-green coalition unfolds. these left/centre coalitions are a kind of a special aspect of canadian politics, and the crux of the reason why canada is what it is. the ndp are going to be tempted to moderate, but they will not be able to do so without forcing an election and probably handing over power. the ndp's position is, in fact, exceedingly weak. the greens are going to have tremendous influence. what we'll have to see is how hard the ndp push back, and what they agree to.

the ndp need a litmus test, right now. this might be it. and, because the ndp is a national party, the positions that the greens can get the ndp to hold to may have national implications, too.

british columbians should be ecstatic about this outcome and optimistic for it to be extremely productive in passing legislation to protect both the coast and the interior, as well as to block carbon exports to china.