What the Liberals and NDP can learn from B.C.’s 2017 confidence and supply agreement

Experts say the deal struck between the BC NDP and BC Greens is the latest precedent for the federal deal, and can provide historical lessons for the new partnership.

The confidence and supply agreement announced by the Liberals and NDP in Ottawa on Tuesday sounded eerily familiar to voters in British Columbia.

Back in 2017, a similar arrangement between the provincial NDP and Green parties ushered in a sea change in B.C. politics after a nail-biting election. Today, the architects of that deal say it can stand as a positive model for the federal parties.

“We were able to get a lot done here, because we put the interest of others ahead of political partisan interests, and we both learned how to compromise,” said Andrew Weaver, the former BC Green Party leader who signed the agreement with Premier John Horgan, allowing Horgan’s NDP to form a minority government.

“I think the (federal) NDP in my mind look like the adults in the room, as they recognize that by working together with the federal Liberals, (they) can advance better public policy that will benefit all.”

Experts say the B.C. agreement was struck in a very different political environment that was more supportive of the NDP-Green partnership than it may be for the federal deal.

It was also far from perfect, they add, presenting challenges to the BC Greens that Jagmeet Singh and the federal NDP will be wise to learn from — particularly for their long-term future.

“Both sides will have victories and accomplishments they can point to, just like in B.C.,” said Gerald Baier, a political science associate professor at the University of British Columbia.

“But this (agreement) also has the potential to really hurt the NDP going forward, because voters will think, ‘Why would I vote NDP when the Liberals are doing the kinds of things that the NDP would do?”