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“When you’re afraid to make the principled decision upfront, you end up with the problem you have right now — no matter what decision you make, a whole bunch of people are going to be upset.”

For all the scorn Weaver heaps on the New Democrats for their hesitation, he’s nevertheless predicting they will soon enough decide to continue building Site C: “The NDP is afraid of continually being framed by the Liberals as anti-jobs.”

He’s also gone on record several times as saying if the New Democrats do proceed, they need not fear that the Greens will defeat them in the legislature: “We will not cause government to fail over this decision.”

Greens hold out hope that some New Democrats would cross to them in protest over approval of Site C. But why would New Democrats be expected to abandon their party when the Greens won’t use their voting leverage to force the issue?

Asked why he chose to let the New Democrats off the hook on Site C, Weaver explained that the Greens have only two choices: “If they don’t do what we like, we could defeat the government at the next opportunity — or not.”

He and his colleagues then have to ask themselves: “What are the risks if we do that?,” meaning bring down the government and force another election.

“Well the risks are that NDP get a majority government and they continue on doing the same,” said Weaver. “Risks are the Liberals get a majority government and then Site C continues on the same path.”

Weaver discounted the Greens’ chances of winning a majority: “We’ve got some work to do to go from three seats to 45 or so.”