British Columbians need to be the focus of incredibly tight Legislature: Bond

The final count was finally completed yesterday (Monday) and the BC NDP squeaked out the seats they needed to form an incredibly slim majority government.

“I don’t think anyone should be holding a victory party, what we need to see is leaders that are going to step up and listen to British Columbians,” said the now former Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond.

“The message was pretty clear to David Eby that he has a lot of work to do, and British Columbians also didn’t give John Rustad a majority either. Now is the time at the centre of their agenda needs to be British Columbians and the issues that matter most to them.”

Bond said it’s going to be a challenging parliament, and British Columbians expect some sense of leadership in looking at what matters most to them.

With the NDP winning 47 seats, the Conservatives winning 44, and the Greens winning two, Bond expects a lot of tight votes in the legislature. The legislature will also have to elect a speaker.

“That will mean there is a lot of expectation and a lot of anticipation about what the two Green members are going to do,” Bond added.

“Every single vote, every single day in the legislature is going to be incredibly tight, there’s going to be lots of debate and back and forth.”

The provincial voter turnout was around 58 per cent.

Yesterday’s final count saw the NDP barely claim a majority by winning the Surrey-Guildford riding by 27 votes. That gave the NDP their 47th seat, the magic number needed to form a majority.

With the results coming down to 27 votes, Bond hopes people will look at this election and realize their vote matters.

“By the time you take the speaker out, we’re going to be facing very tight circumstances in parliament,” she said.

“I am hopeful this energizes the electorate as they look at the results to say, you know what, showing up at the polls does matter, it’s fine to have your opinions throughout the four years, but you have to be able to get to the polls, and your vote does matter.”

Bond said she’s never been in the position of having a vote as close as Surrey-Guildford, but she said it would have been agonizing for the NDP’s Gary Begg and the Conservative’s Honveer Singh Randhawa, the two candidates who were neck and neck in the riding, to wait for the results.

“I’ve had colleagues who literally won by just a handful of votes, and it is agonizing,” she said.

“It also sends a message to those MLAs that they have their work cut out for them. When you win by a very small margin, you’re going to have to work very hard to earn the respect and the confidence of the other voters in your riding.”

Bond said another important thing is that these MLAs are not just serving those who elected them, they have to serve everyone in the constituency.

“I think there’s a lot of work to be done on behalf of all of the MLAs,” she said.

“There’s literally dozens of new MLAs in the legislature so it’s going to take some of them a bit of time to get up to speed, and I certainly experienced that as well, but the major focus, for those MLAs, whether they were in a tight race, or had an easy win, is to make sure they’re listening to their constituents, and delivering on their behalf.”