According to the B.C. Liberals, lessons learned from winning the battle but losing the war in the recent provincial election pushed them to make two serious u-turns in political direction. Hogwash.

Social Development Minister Heather Stillwell鈥檚 insistence the Liberals will increase welfare rates by $100 per month鈥攁fter a decade-long freeze鈥攁nd Attorney General Andrew Wilkinson鈥檚 saying big money donations to parties will be banned are political moves, pure and simple.

They are aimed at making the NDP and Greens vote against two positions they support when they vote down the Liberals鈥� Throne Speech in order to bring down Christy Clark鈥檚 government. They will also be used by the Liberals to claim credit when they are reintroduced in the coming months by the yet-to-be installed new NDP minority government.

Cynical? Nah. It鈥檚 the way politics is played.

So too is the kerfuffle brewing over the tenure of the speaker of the Legislature the Liberals plan to put forward later this week. But in that case, the Liberals are right.

It鈥檚 not up to the Liberals to provide a speaker for a party that not only plans to bring down Clark鈥檚 government, but also plans to do it to take the reigns of power with a one-seat majority thanks to the B.C. Greens.

As the NDP has pointed out, the party in power has a responsibility to appoint a speaker. If that鈥檚 the NDP, it鈥檚 their job. If it鈥檚 to the detriment of NDP voting strength, that鈥檚 its problem.

So the Liberal speaker plans to step down after the Liberal government is brought down. And the NDP鈥檚 one-seat majority will evaporate in straight forward head-to-head voting with the Liberals in the Legislature. That is unless its 鈥渘eutral鈥� speaker starts regularly breaking tied votes in its favour. And that鈥檚 something the supposedly neutral speaker is only expected to do on rare occasions, not as a matter of course. Kinda takes the neutrality out of the job, eh?

But welcome to the new normal of B.C politics.

All this, of course, is because voters left the make-up of the Legislature at 43 seats for the Liberals, 41 for the NDP and three for the Greens.

And these issues are just a foreshadow of some of the difficulties facing an NDP minority government. Whether it鈥檚 a final decision on the Site C dam鈥攁 real Hobson鈥檚 choice for leader and premier-in-waiting John Horgan鈥攎inimum wage or Lower Mainland bridge tolls, Clark鈥檚 Liberals are not about to make this easy for him.

And remember, Clark told us she heard the message from voters loud and clear. She said they want B.C. politicians to work better together. If this is 鈥渂etter,鈥� I鈥檇 hate to see when things really get ugly and both sides drop the gloves for some real parliamentary pugilism.

One thing is for sure, the start of the next B.C. election campaign, not matter when that vote occurs, will start the minute MLAs walk into the Legislature later this week. So don鈥檛 expect Robert鈥檚, or anyone else鈥檚, Rules of Order.

Alistair Waters is the assistant editor of the Capital News.