The Speech from the Throne is a tradition in parliamentary democracy. Read by the Queen's representative, it is written by the office of the first minister and it lays out the government's plans for the legislative session ahead. At least that is the way it is supposed to work. Students of political science may find it difficult to relate many past Throne Speeches to the subsequent legislative agenda with, in BC at least, 80 to 90 Bills, many of which are routine business generated by the bureaucracy.

BC's 2005 Throne Speech may be different. It is the first time in the history of British Columbia where everyone knows that the speech is exactly 98 days before the next election. The government doesn't have time to implement any new policy before the election; its time has run out. It may be too late for a government that has earned a reputation as mean spirited to hand back some of what it took with 30-40% cuts on Black Thursday, January 17, 2002. Did it go too far, thereby demonstrating that it really cannot forecast its revenue and spending, or did it do exactly what it intended, only to retreat in fear of the voters, to pray for forgiveness by casting a few crumbs back to the crowd? One way or the other, the Speech from the Throne on Tuesday, February 8th, will be crafted as the kickoff to the election rather than as a plan for a lengthy legislative session.

The Standing Orders for the Legislature require that the Throne Speech receive six sitting days of debate; the same is true of the Budget Speech. Those rules produce twelve sitting days of nonsense where MLAs get up and say whatever they want about whatever they want with no consequence other than wasting twelve days of the legislative sitting. There is no normal sitting on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. By March 3rd the government must deal with estimates debate or call legislation. Whereas budget debate is nothing but general speeches that serve as mailings, estimates debate is where the opposition can put ministers on the spot with questions for days on end. Even if the government introduces no new legislation in the final 98 days before the election, estimates debate could easily use all of the legislative time before the Legislature must be dissolved on April 19th for the call of an election on May 17th. Allowing for Easter break there are only about 18 days when the government will have to face estimates debate. The Campbell government will be challenged to face daily question periods and estimates until April 19th rather than adjourning the session so it can hide from accountability. If it cuts and runs, it means that it refused to stand up to just 18 days of debate.