Clark promises to continue to govern while working “across party lines”

This morning, Christy Clark visited Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon who asked her to continue to serve as BC’s Premier.

“There is no doubt that last night’s results will go down in the history books,” Clark said in an address to the media this afternoon. “It was a finish and it’s not quite over yet as we await the absentee ballots but it’s a finish we haven’t seen in a very long time in British Columbia.”

Clark said British Columbians sent a very strong message to all sides of the provincial legislature.

“They want us to work collaboratively and across partisan lines. They are interested in making BC stronger, achieving our collective goals and they demanded of us a new way and a new approach to achieving those goals.”

So what will that new approach look like? Clark was scarce on details.

“Whatever the outcome is whether it’s a minority or a majority, I do intend to make sure that we work across party lines with parties that want to work with us. I have a good relationship working with [Green Party leader] Dr. [Andrew] Weaver in the past. He’s a smart thoughtful reasonable guy and so we found places where we can work together.”

If the Liberals remain with 43 seats, a coalition with the Greens, predicted to hold 3 seats, would give them a small majority.

Three ridings will undergo a recount due to extremely small margins. Elections BC will also count absentee and out-of-riding ballots before making a final call on the election results.That call is expected by May 24.

When asked about the fact that, compared to 2013, the Liberals seem to have lost more than 4% of the popular vote, Clark pointed to the other parties.

“In this election, the NDP vote did not go up. What happened in this election is the Greens doubled their votes, tripled their representation. That was a really strong message – that the citizens of British Columbia sent us so we’re going to listen to that and we’re going to make sure that we’re working across partisan lines.”

The NDP’s share of the popular vote increased by a little over a fifth of a percent compared to 2013, according to preliminary results.

She also thanked her home riding of Kelowna West, where she was re-elected with 60% of the vote.