Liberals win third straight majority in BC

The results are in, and so is the Liberal Party, yet again.

Gordon Campbell's Liberals managed once again to defeat the NDP in the BC provincial election, winning 49 seats -- 13 more than the opposition's 36. The Liberals received 46% of the popular vote, the NDP 42%.

Before the election was called, the Liberals held 42 seats and the NDP 34. (Six new ridings were created for this election and three seats were vacant.) The Green Party failed to win any seats.

Despite problems during the Liberals' tenure in healthcare (as Canadian Medicine reported on last week), voters apparently were reluctant to put the "untested leader" Carole James in power and so chose Mr Campbell (pictured above) to attempt to dig the province out of the recession, as well as to lead the province through next year's Olympics, summed up the Nanaimo Daily News.

Ms James, the NDP leader, has said she will stay on as party leader. It's anyone's guess, however, how long that arrangement will last. Longtime NDP health critic Adrian Dix, who was reelected on Tuesday and could probably make a good case for a leadership bid himself, said he supported Ms James as the party's leader despite the election results. "I'm proud to serve with her, and I think all NDP-ers are proud of the job she's done."

There's been no word on who will hold the post of health minister in the new government but our best guess is that George Abbott, who was reeleceted on Tuesday, will stay on. He's the longest serving provincial health minister in the country and, with a recession threatening to pull BC's finances into the red, the government will likely want a health minister who knows how to avoid any major catastrophes.

"There will be a lot of painful news coming from the government in the next few months," warned the Victoria Times-Colonist on Wednesday. "Individual ministries will face a severe squeeze as the government tries to find cuts to make up for falling revenues. There are only three choices: Cut spending; raise taxes; or incur a larger deficit." Canadian Medicine is willing to bet that a larger deficit is what will be seen, at least in the health ministry.

The other item on the ballot this election, a referendum on adopting a Single Transferable Voting system rather than the existing first-past-the-post method, didn't come close to passing.

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