P.E.I. Greens promise 'more vigorous opposition' when legislature resumes

The leader of the P.E.I. Green Party says his party will provide more "vigorous opposition" when the legislature resumes in April, and has already begun feeling its way toward a more confrontational approach to politics to counter criticism the party has been "very cozy" with government.

Peter Bevan-Baker said it's been "challenging" over the past 10 months for his party to find a balance between honouring its commitments to work collaboratively with other parties, while at the same time holding government to account as the first Green official opposition in the country.

Collaboration is absolutely not over, and I'm not averse to hugging almost anybody.— Peter Bevan-Baker

"Somehow people have gotten the impression that we're very cozy with the governing party and that we're not holding them to account, but actually that has never been the case," said Bevan-Baker.

Regardless, he said the party has to "re-emphasize" the accountability part of its portfolio, and plans to do so "through some perhaps more vigorous opposition," although he said that doesn't mean the Greens are "going to lose our sense of civility."

'Ask hard questions'

Philippe Lagassé, chair of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa and an expert on the Westminster parliamentary system, said being an effective opposition doesn't require a party to be "uncivil, but someone must be there to ask hard questions and raise concerns that might have been overlooked."

"Having an opposition that opposes is generally considered vital for holding the government to account," Lagassé said, adding that "a true opposition is [also] important to give voters a choice at election time."

One move by the Greens so far which he found "especially odd and counterproductive" is when the party's social development critic Hannah Bell was quoted in a government news release in December announcing an increase in social assistance benefits.

"Having an opposition member endorse government undermines their party's ability to effectively scrutinize the policy," Lagassé said via email. "That isn't to say that each opposition member has to be against the government on all policies, but actively supporting the government, is odd."

Bevan-Baker said there was a lengthy discussion within caucus on whether the Greens should be involved in that announcement. Ultimately the decision was made to go ahead because increasing social assistance rates was something the party, and Bell in particular, had pushed hard for — efforts which, Bevan-Baker said, led to government going ahead with the increase.

Not 'politically naive anymore'

Bevan-Baker said he wouldn't characterize the move as a mistake, but also isn't sure if it's something the party would do again.

"We're learning. We're relatively new to this, and I don't want to harp on about our naiveté because I don't think we're politically naive anymore," Bevan-Baker said. "But I do think that we're learning some things about what it means to operate within the confines of a legislature."

He said in another case, the Greens asked government to include funding for rural health-care hubs in its capital budget, which it did.

But no one in government mentioned the idea had come from the Greens until the $5-million line item had become a significant point of debate in the legislature, under repeated questioning from the third-party Liberals.

"We haven't always played smart politics here, and I think it was quite clear that our closeness to government was giving them all of the political credit and we were taking all of the political risk," said Bevan-Baker.

A recent blog post in which Bevan-Baker criticized Transportation Minister Steven Myers overspending in his department and for the minister's comments on social media is one example of the Greens trying on a more accusatory tone with government.

Myers dismissed the criticism in a tweet saying the approach by the Greens was the same approach he took while in opposition.

Premier Dennis King, who like Bevan-Baker promised in last year's election to do politics differently and who has made much of the collaboration between parties during the first two sittings of the current legislative assembly, said he hopes that spirit of collaboration won't be lost.

'Haven't seen the personal attacks'

King said he thinks both opposition parties have done a "very good job" holding his minority government to account, and observers shouldn't mistake civility during debate as a lack of resolve from opposition members to seek that accountability.

"I think maybe because we haven't seen the personal attacks and the fighting and the blood-letting on the floor of the legislature that people think that somehow we're getting some kind of free pass, and I would argue that we're not," King said.

"We are the envy of the rest of Canada in how we've conducted ourselves here … in very difficult political times across the globe. And I would hate to think that we would move away from that, but the opposition parties have a job to do."

Bevan-Baker said the collaboration isn't going to end, and neither will the political hugs, which have been photographed and widely shared in the news and on social media.

"Collaboration is absolutely not over, and I'm not averse to hugging almost anybody. But I think we will … at least in a political sense, distance ourselves a little bit more from government."

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