Did BC NDP Leader John Horgan say that Christy Clark’s Liberals would win the election during the B.C. leaders’ election debate on Wednesday night?
BC Greens Leader Andrew Weaver certainly seemed to think so.
Horgan and Weaver were involved in a heated exchange over the issue of political donations when the BC NDP leader made a remark that forced the Greens leader to do a double-take.
The exchange went as follows:
Horgan: “We’re going to ban big money. We’re going to say no more of that…”
Weaver: “So do as I say, not as I do. Do as I say, not as I do.”
Horgan: “…to put people back in the centre of government.”
Weaver: “Do as I say, not as I do. The BC Greens are principled. We’re principled because in September we banned corporate and union donations from our party because it was wrong, and it was a bit rich for you and your party to stand up and criticize the BC Liberals for doing exactly the same thing.”
Horgan: “The most corporate-funded party in British Columbia history is going to win the next election because they’ve taken big piles of money, the only way we stop that is…”
Weaver: “Did you just say the BC Liberals are going to win the next election?”
Horgan: “The only way we stop that…”
Weaver: “Did he just say that?”
Horgan: “…is to take the big money out of politics and that’s what we intend to do.”
READ MORE: ‘Your plan is simply a “La La Land” plan’: 15 crackling quotes from the B.C. leaders’ debate
Horgan said he misspoke in a post-debate news conference.
“That would be put down to a misspeak I would think,” he said.
“I don’t want the most corporate-funded party in B.C. to win the next election, would have been how I would have said that.”
In a post-debate analysis, Allan Bonner, a crisis communications professional who has worked with heads of government and Nobel Prize winners, also said that Horgan admitted the Liberals would win the next election.
“The NDP leader appeared to be calm, cool and collected,” he told Global News.
“But he did, in a slip of the tongue, say the party that’s going to win the election took a lot of campaign donations.
“He essentially conceded defeat to the Liberals.”
Political donations have been a key issue throughout the B.C. election campaign.
The BC Liberals have faced scrutiny for taking corporate donations including $241,000 from forestry giant Weyerhaeuser that date back to 2005.
The BC NDP, meanwhile, have been criticized for accepting over $672,000 in donations from the United Steelworkers Union.
Some of the NDP’s senior campaign staff are being paid by the union.
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