Are campaign promises dead?

That's what Green Party leader Andrew Weaver said yesterday when he called the NDP's promise for $10-a-day childcare "irrelevant" in this political climate.

Political commentator Norman Spector, who was a deputy minister under former B.C. premier Bill Bennett and a chief of staff to former prime minister Brian Mulroney, says while Weaver may have overstated things, he does have a point.

"It is important to realize that the May election was unlike any others we've had in British Columbia," he said.

B.C.'s minority government means that power-sharing agreements, negotiations and compromise are part of the deal.

That means campaign promises might have to be modified to earn the support of the parties so the legislation actually passes and the NDP stay in power.

"The reason John Horgan is the premier of British Columbia today is not because his party won the most votes or won the most seats, but it's because he was able to conclude an agreement with Andrew Weaver whereby the Green Party would support the NDP," he said.

"John Horgan owes his job to Andrew Weaver."

Spector says it looks like the two parties are trying to accommodate each other and it's in the best interest of the NDP to bend to Weaver's will.

And if things get very contentious, there is nothing stopping Horgan from calling an election.

"If the NDP and their voters are dissatisfied with the arrangement, he can any day get up and go to the lieutenant governor and ask to dissolve the legislature and call an election," he said. "But I don't get the sense that they're all that upset."

The wild card in the NDP-Green relationship is the possibility of electoral reform. Both parties have committed to a proportional representation system.

If that system is implemented, he said, this kind of ambiguous power-sharing politics will be the norm.

"We are going to see this kind of politics and this kind of government almost always."

With files from The Early Edition