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Horgan said he thinks the Greens and Liberals will support his opposition to closed lists if mixed-member comes to a vote on a legislature committee.

” I’ve heard the Liberal party is opposed to closed lists as well,” he said. “So the committee that will be struck after a Yes vote, should that be the will of the people, will consist of half NDP, half Liberal and a Green — that’s how the committees will be struck so far because it is an evenly-balanced legislature. And I believe that the majority of members will say yeah I agree we should have an open list.”

Wilkinson rejected that.

“John Horgan is trying to anticipate the decision of the all-party committee that he controls, so he might as well tell us all the answer right now rather than playing games with us,” said Wilkinson. “We’re not inclined to support what Mr. Horgan puts forward at the last possible moment to try and save the legitimacy of his referendum.”

It was Horgan’s government that set the rules for the referendum, including originally leaving the possibility of a closed list as an outcome. When asked Wednesday if that was a mistake, and why he didn’t specify the acceptable versions of mixed member from the beginning, Horgan said he was tied to the recommendations of Attorney General David Eby, who he had charged with being independent in setting up the referendum rules.

“He did that independent of government and he presented his report and we accepted the report,” Horgan said. “It’s easy after the fact to say I would have done it differently. But I believe I’ve had the opportunity, and I’m reinforcing it now in this interview, to say this is my preference, I’m the leader of the government, and should there be a Yes vote here is where we’re going to go.”