Horgan should name cabinet

Premier Christy Clark has showed British Columbians where her government plans to go by appointing her cabinet — a cabinet that, if B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan has his way, will be little more than a footnote in the political history of this province.

Horgan argues that the people voted for change. He says that he should be given a chance to be premier, and he wants Clark to get out of the way. He says his party is ready to govern.

If that is the case, Horgan should break precedent, and tell British Columbia about the cabinet he will name when he takes over.

The names of cabinet ministers are usually kept under wraps until they are presented to the lieutenant-governor to be sworn in. But “usual” is not a term that applies to B.C. government and politics today.

Since the voters handed the B.C. Liberals 43 seats in the election, to 41 for the NDP and three for the B.C. Green Party, confusion and uncertainty have become a way of life. Minority governments always flirt with disaster, but this one — either Liberal or NDP — teeters so perilously that “knife’s edge” seems too wide a descriptor.

Although she acknowledged at the swearing-in ceremony on Monday that her government would fall at the first confidence vote, Clark named a 22-member cabinet that is prepared to carry on the business of the province. She also promised a throne speech “that reflects the direction that we’d like the province to take.”

That direction would include measures “to make life more affordable for middle-class families, to give our children the best supports and the best start possible to build their success, to protect and enhance our environment, to build communities with a high quality of life.”

The cabinet list crafted by Clark shows that she has taken to heart the message she believes voters were trying to send when they slashed her majority. She is aiming for a new direction — and whether she, Horgan or Green Leader Andrew Weaver are correct in reading the mood of the electorate, she has decided to turn her painful education into policy.

To put that policy into effect, she put together what she called a “stand pat” cabinet that included five new faces, but left most ministers and ministries unchanged. The cabinet has the collective experience to start working on new measures and to pick up the file folders that have been piling up on deputy ministers’ desks since before the election was called.

In contrast, the only concrete indication of the direction the NDP would take is the text of the deal it signed with the three-member Green Party caucus. Certainly, that is more than empty campaign promises, as it binds the two parties to pursue certain goals.

However, it sets out the things they had to agree on to cement the alliance.

It doesn’t provide us with the NDP’s full program, or tell us who will put that program into effect as cabinet ministers.

With four weeks to think about it, Horgan must have settled on a list by now. Why keep it under wraps? Why not give us a better sense of what will be contained in his first throne speech?

It is more than a month since the election, and the uncertainty about our future will continue until the Liberal government is — or isn’t — defeated.

Anything the politicians can do to help ease the anxiety will help. Horgan says he is ready to take the reins; if that is the case, he should prove it.