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The House

Midweek podcast: Who will lead British Columbia?

On The House midweek podcast, the final results are in and we still don't know who will end up in charge in British Columbia. The Green Party holds the balance of power and could decide to help the Liberals or the NDP form a minority government. We speak to leader Andrew Weaver. We also talk to former chief Bill Wilson about why he added his voice to the growing chorus of critics of the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.
CBC Radio ·
B.C. Green party leader Andrew Weaver speaks to supporters at election headquarters at the Delta Ocean Pointe on election night in Victoria, B.C., on , Wednesday, May 10, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito (Chad Hipolito/CP)

The final results of the 2017 B.C. election are now in, but there's still uncertainty about who will end up in charge of the province.

With the NDP winning the riding of Courtenay-Comox by 189 votes, the B.C. Liberals' final seat count stopped at 43 seats — one short of a majority — the NDP is at 41 and the Green Party at 3. 

That makes party leader Andrew Weaver an important man to win over — and his negotiating team is already in talks with the other parties.

"It's not in our interest to form a coalition. We're not looking to have a formal coalition. I think that means our ability to actually hold government, whichever it be, to account is mitigated," he told The House.

The two biggest conditions Green Party leader Andrew Weaver has mentioned as necessary for his party's support in the legislature have been banning corporate and union donations and changing B.C.'s electoral system.

He could also play a crucial role in two projects with national implications, the future of the Site C dam and Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline project.

Weaver said he's already spoken to Liberal MPs.

"The Kinder Morgan decision had nothing to do with good public policy and everything to do with political horse trading," he said.

"It left us with a lot of federal Liberals who said we agree with you and that is one of the reasons why we voted for you." 

Jody Wilson-Raybould's father calls missing and murdered inquiry a 'bloody farce'

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Bridget Tolley, whose mother Gladys was killed in 2001, is embraced after the announcement of the inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women at the Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016. The federal government has announced the terms of a long-awaited inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women, unveiling that it will need at least $13.8 million more for the study than was originally expected. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)

Bill Wilson, a hereditary chief and the father of federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, says the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is a "bloody farce" and the commissioners leading it need to be replaced.

"I would think that young [Justin] Trudeau should darn well know that this thing is not working and he should fire these people," Wilson told Chris Hall, host of CBC Radio's The House.

"It just makes me sick... People have been sitting on their hands for eight months, spending a good ton of money and they haven't done a doggone thing."

In a critical Facebook post, Wilson, a prominent figure in British Columbia politics who helped enshrine Indigenous rights in the Canadian Constitution, went even further, calling the inquiry a "bloody farce." 

But he's not expecting his daughter, who has a seat at the cabinet table, to listen.

"I wouldn't expect that. I consider her totally and absolutely independent. I know that she shares some of the same kinds of feelings I have, but, I mean, she's operating in a government," Wilson said.

Wilson no longer has an elected role in the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nation in B.C., but is honoured as a hereditary chief. 

His daughter Wilson-Raybould told CBC in an email: ​"Our government remains steadfast in our commitment to end this ongoing tragedy. I want to say that I respect my father's opinions, but he speaks for himself. We have not spoken about the inquiry."