“As we have heard in this house,” said Banman, evidently quoting the New Democrats, “the leader of the Opposition was the one that made the cuts to B.C.’s health-care system that got B.C.’s health-care system to this point.”

Photo credit Canadian Press

The accusation brought an explosion of indignation from the B.C. United members, who sit on the same side of the house as the Conservatives, separated only by a sort-of political DMZ made up of the two Green MLAs.

The main purpose of question period is holding the government to account. But here were the Conservatives and B.C. United doing the deed to each other.

The New Democrats took in all of this with undisguised glee, rightly concluding that they could take the rest of the day off so long as the Opposition parties were hacking away at each other.

The dynamic in the house these days provides the government with an insurance policy of sorts, should the NDP’s long-standing lead in the opinion polls begin to falter as the fall election campaign heats up.

The New Democrats could still win big against a pair of Opposition parties that are more effective at needling each other than they are at keeping the government on the defensive.

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