Whatever the outcome of Tuesday’s provincial election, B.C. Green Party leader Andrew Weaver says his party will “work with anybody.”
During a recent interview with Global B.C.’s Keith Baldrey, Weaver was asked which party he’d be more comfortable working with. Weaver didn’t answer but said, if he was going to work with NDP leader John Horgan, Horgan would have to “control his temper.”
A headline on the interview stated Weaver would not work with Horgan. While it was changed later, the incorrect headline was already being recycled for political purposes on social media.
In Baldrey’s interview, Weaver was complimentary to B.C. Liberal leader Christy Clark. Weaver said with her “you can have a respectful disagreement in a one-on-one conversation and it’s not personal.”
The NOW repeated the question to Weaver at a Burnaby media event on Thursday, adding the Green leader’s comments about Clark suggests he’d rather work with her than Horgan.
“I’ve always said we’ll work with anybody,” he told the NOW.
“I would love to work with Mr. Horgan; is he willing to work with us? I would suggest people ask him that question because it’s not clear to me that he does.”
Weaver said the NDP’s behaviour hasn’t proved to him the New Democrats are willing to work with the Green party.
“If I’m sitting across from you, and I’m hurling abuse at you, hurling abuse, just stuff that’s made up, why do you want to work with me? Do you want to work with me after that? Probably not. So if Mr. Horgan wants to work with us, we’ve said we’ll work with anyone,” Weaver said.
Asked whether he would support Horgan if the NDP won a minority on Tuesday, Weaver said “of course.”
“If it’s a minority, the people of British Columbia will have spoken and said the B.C. NDP have the most seats,” he said. “That’s the democracy in action.”
Weaver was in Burnaby Thursday morning touring Greenlight Innovations, a local company that builds fuel cell, battery and electrolyser testing equipment and tools and automation equipment.
The Green party leader was accompanied by Burnaby-Deer Lake and Burnaby North candidates Rick McGowan and Peter Hallschmid, respectively. The three candidates got a behind-the-scenes tour of Greenlight’s facility from the company’s three partners Ross Bailey, CEO; Greig Walsh, director of sales and marketing; and Christian Bosio, operations manager.
During the tour, Weaver was asked how his party would support the economy of the future and clean tech companies like Greenlight.
“I would argue that you have barriers to grow, you don’t need government telling you what you need to do,” Weaver replied.
The leader added the party would focus its attention on creating more incubators to help companies take an idea and make it a reality and would look into matching some of the federal funding available to start-ups.
“There are very good programs that exist federally, so, rather than having separate provincial programs, we’re just matching funds,” he added.
“He said the right things,” Bosio, who asked the question, told the NOW after the event. “He alluded to it correctly that government doesn’t make jobs. I think that’s something that Christy (Clark) latches on to way too much, taking all the credit for every job ever created in this province, and like he said, government doesn’t create jobs; it’s businesses that create jobs, and we have to make an environment that makes it easier for new businesses.”
