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VICTORIA — Though the Greens would gain the most from a switch to proportional representation, party leader Andrew Weaver downplays the significance of the defeat for PR in last fall’s referendum.

“People still don’t understand the B.C. Greens if they continue to think that this is all about power for us,” he told reporters after the 61 to 39 per cent rout was announced Dec. 20.

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This week he was at it again, suggesting the New Democrats had a bigger stake in the referendum than did the Greens.

“People forget it was the NDP who campaigned on having a referendum on PR, not us,” he wrote on Twitter.

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But a much different take on the result has emerged via comments from Matt Toner, the former deputy leader of the Greens and a one-time member of Weaver’s inner circle.

“A tremendous setback” for the Greens, was the way Toner described the outcome in a morning-after-the-vote interview on CBC Radio last month.