B.C. premier’s political path a rocky one

JOHN HORGAN

by the federal government and is seen as crucial to revitalizing Alberta’s oilsands.

During the B.C. election campaign, Notley, who leads the NDP in Alberta, banned her staff from working to elect Horgan due to their disagreement over the project. Trudeau, at a stop in Metro Vancouver last month, suggested the B.C. NDP’s position was “wrong.”

But on Friday, a day after Clark’s government was defeated in the legislature, both Notley and Trudeau issued statements that avoided the touchy subject of the pipeline.

“I look forward to working closely with premierdesignate Horgan to deliver real results on the issues that matter to British Columbians and to all Canadians,” Trudeau said.

“By coming together in a spirit of co-operation, I am confident that we can grow the industries and sectors at the heart of the province’s prosperity, while promoting clean growth and innovation and investing in public transit and green infrastructure.”

The prime minister also said he looked forward to working with Horgan to implement the recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Horgan told Vancouver radio station CKNW on Friday that stopping Trans Mountain was not his top priority. He said he will focus his attention first on other issues including the opioid crisis and housing.

He has not said which tools he will use to try to stop the pipeline, apart from saying legal and regulatory options are available.

“Alberta and British Columbia B.C. Premier-designate John Horgan, pictured Thursday at Government House in Victoria, will get the chance to lead the province after Premier Christy Clark’s Liberals were defeated in a non-confidence vote. share more than a border. We are bound together by deep personal and economic ties and a commitment to building strong communities with better for the people of our two provinces.”

Horgan wasn’t always on the path to becoming a political leader. As a teenager, he skipped school and played they were widely expected to win but which ended with Clark leading a remarkable comeback for the Liberals.

“I look forward to working harder than I’ve ever worked before to make sure that this great province continues to grow and that the prosperity that we all want to see for ourselves, we can make sure that we share that prosperity with others,” he said in Victoria after meeting with the lieutenant-governor to accept the responsibility of governing.

Horgan said he tried to reach his wife Ellie with the news, but had to leave a voicemail because she was outside.

“I said, ‘It’s the premier calling, I will get back to you,’ so I’ve made the most important call I had to make.”

The young woman, whose name is protected by a publication ban, was sitting in the front row of the courtroom.

Brandon Blackmore’s lawyer said his client, who is 71, was excommunicated in 2012 and has no contact with any of the members of his former church.

John Gustafson said his client has begun to have some insight about his actions, but was “taught his whole life that Warren Jeffs was God’s representative on earth.”

He asked for a conditional sentence, a form of house arrest, for his client.

“He is not in a position, even if he wanted to, to commit these acts again,” Gustafson said.

Gail Blackmore, 60, declined to say anything during sentencing but Joe Doyle, a lawyer appointed as a friend of the court, spoke on her behalf.

Doyle said the woman should not be painted with the “polygamist brush.” He said she is less culpable because women in the church are taught to have “absolute obedience” to the male head of the household. “It is now 13 years later. Mr. Jeffs is in jail for the rest of his life,” said Doyle. “She doesn’t have a husband who’s going to order her to do anything. There’s no need for individual deterrence for Mrs. Blackmore.”