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Minority governments are rare in B.C. There had been only two, and the last one was in 1952.

With a provincial election coming up on May 9 this year, former B.C. premier Bill Vander Zalm says the possibility of another minority government cannot be discounted.

“The surprise may be the Greens,” Vander Zalm told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview Thursday (April 27).

According to the former Social Credit premier, the B.C. Green Party of climate scientist Andrew Weaver could become “more a force than what people perhaps thought previously”.

With a chance that neither the governing B.C. Liberals nor the main opposition B.C. NDP will win a majority mandate, Vander Zalm was asked what he thinks about the prospect of Greens holding the balance of power in a minority government.

“We haven’t seen a minority for a time yet, but maybe this time. Who’s to say?” Vander Zalm responded. “And that’s not necessarily bad. No, that could be a good thing.”

Asked to elaborate, the ex-premier said: “I’m not saying it’s a good thing. I’m saying it could be a good thing. There’s nothing wrong with minority governments. They have their place. They work from time to time.”

According to Vander Zalm, minority governments “very often may be restricted from doing a lot of things that perhaps a majority government could do”.

“That’s true. And of course for me, that’s not bad,” Vander Zalm went on. “I think the less government does, the better it may be.”

Standing in the middle of B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark and B.C. NDP leader John Horgan at the leaders’ debate Wednesday (April 26), Weaver made a pitch for voters to give his Green party a chance to hold the balance of power in the next legislative assembly.

Referring to the Liberals on his right and New Democrats on the left, Weaver said: “Neither of these parties can be trusted with majority government.”