Two former Liberal MLAs in the Kamloops area expect there may be a prolonged “honeymoon phase” for a majority NDP government.

George Abbott, a former Shuswap MLA  says COVID-19 is still going to dominate the politics in B.C.

“I think there’s going to be another year where we’re going to be very much focused on COVID. Everything’s unusual until COVID makes it way out of our system. Regular politics I think is set aside, actually, in lots of ways for that period.”

Abbott says it might take a couple of years before traditional politics are commonplace again in the B.C. Legislature.

And Terry Lake, a former Kamloops mayor and Kamloops-North Thompson MLA, also predicts a honeymoon phase. He also says that’s all to do with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People know there’s going to be deficits for a while. They know it’s going to take a while for jobs to come back. I don’t think they’re going to blame the government for that; people know the situation is very different than whatever we’ve faced in the past. I think they [the NDP] are going to have a couple of years.”

Lake says the Liberals will need to regroup and likely choose a new party leader to replace Andrew Wilkinson.