The singular mistake was allowing a Liberal MLA to be elected speaker. Hard to say if the premier and her handlers weren't clever enough or Machiavellian enough but that was the best course of action if remaining in government was the short-term goal. Had the opposition parties also declined to have a speaker elected from their ranks, a general election would likely have followed without the premier having to beg. And if the speaker had come from the opposition side, the Libs would have been tied with the opposition in terms of numbers of votes, with the speaker bound by convention to support the status quo, i.e. the Liberal government, when casting a tie-breaking vote. Had the speaker defied convention and voted against the government, it would be hard to imagine the lieutenant-governor calling upon the opposition leader to form one without first calling another general election, in part because one convention would have to have been broken for the other to come into play.