VICTORIA -- The BC Greens have elected a new leader, and Sonia Furstenau wasted no time taking aim at a possible snap election – characterizing it as “reckless.”

Furstenau, the MLA for Cowichan Valley, accepted the leadership position Monday after a months-long campaign. The leadership election comes after Andrew Weaver announced he was leaving as leader, and later that he would sit as an independent MLA.

In her first speech, Furstenau spoke about the sexism that exists, remarking she was asked once if she missed being a housewife. She said it was important for her to show herself as an example of a woman in a political leadership position.

She also took a swing at the premier.

“To John Horgan I say, you have a responsibility to govern, not play politics."

Furstenau went on to say with the twin pandemics in British Columbia, the timing was wrong, a sentiment echoed by the leader of the BC Liberals.

“We have to wonder why the NDP want to have an election, they think they can take advantage in the middle of a pandemic,” said Andrew Wilkinson.

Speculation of a snap election is rampant. At an event to announce leading-edge lung cancer screening for British Columbia, several of the questions were about the possibility of a fall election.

In response John Horgan said several times, and several ways, ““My number one priority is the well-being of the people of British Columbia.”

The premier didn’t directly answer whether he was ready to send people to the polls. Yet, at this time his popularity is extremely high with numbers that have sustained for months. The political calculation for the NDP now is whether they could translate a minority government into a majority.

The Greens argue the minority government is stable, yet recently Horgan has been distancing himself from the Confidence and Supply Agreement.

“When it was created, we didn’t think that a global pandemic is something we’d have to consider. The situation today is not the situation last year, or certainly not 2017,” Horgan said.

There’s no playbook for a pandemic, but for calling an election, there is. With no confidence vote looming, Horgan would have to present his case the Lieutenant Governor and get the okay.