Greens not opposed to joining cabinet but 'kinks to be worked out'

Opposition Leader Peter Bevan-Baker says he's not opposed to being part of Premier Dennis King's cabinet, something King mentioned Monday in an interview with CBC, but he cautioned there are "kinks to be worked out."

Bevan-Baker said the co-operation being exhibited between the three political parties elected to the legislature is a model for the rest of the country.

But Bevan-Baker stopped short of endorsing any plan for him or any member of his party to join the King cabinet. 

"Things are never as simple as they might appear at first blush," Bevan-Baker said in his year-end interview with CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin.

"That sounds like a lovely idea, but there are complexities there that other jurisdictions who have worked with minority governments on a continuous basis for a long time have figured out. This is a new reality for us, so as much as I think that would be a nice thing to do I think there are many kinks to be worked out before we would jump into that."

'Still haven't given up the ghost'

In May, King said he was considering a multi-party cabinet to broaden representation. He said at the time he had approached both the Greens and the Liberals with the idea.

During a year-end interview with CBC News on Monday, King said he was still open to the idea.

"I still haven't given up the ghost of trying to get other parties involved in the cabinet," King said Monday, adding that he may tweak his cabinet next year.

King's Progressive Conservatives won 12 seats in the April 23 election. The party picked up an additional seat during a deferred election in District 9, Charlottetown-Hillsborough Park, giving the party 13 seats. The Green Party won eight seats and the Liberals six. 

Bevan-Baker said he is pleased with how his party has adjusted to being vaulted into the role of Official Opposition for the first time in P.E.I.'s history.

"Considering how many of the new Green MLAs had no legislative experience at all, of course, they have adjusted extraordinarily well."

Striking the right balance between being collaborative, but also still holding government to account has been a challenge, said Bevan-Baker.

Among Bevan-Baker's biggest accomplishments are the passing of seven bills and prodding government on some of the big issues facing the province, including the ongoing housing crisis.

"Of course, we're there to hold government to account and I think we've done a really good job on that," he said. 

"We're not frightened to speak up when we don't agree with what is going on but really our main purpose is to bring forward good policy."

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