VETERAN NDP MINISTERS ARE PINCHING THEMSELVES
Horgan and company glad to be in position to make positive change
VICTORIA On a recent evening in the capital, the scene outside the premier’s office caught the upbeat mood of an NDP government settling into power after 16 years in the wilderness.
There on the lawn was cabinet minister Mike Farnworth, decked out in new blue jeans, checked shirt and baseball cap.
He’d bought the lot off the rack on discovering, fresh from the cabinet oath-taking, that a quick visit to the Kamloops wildfire centre was his first assignment as solicitor general.
Wardrobe still at home in Port Coquitlam. Only clothes on hand, the business suit he’d worn to government house. No handlers, staff or, indeed, anything else in the office he’d inherited from outgoing deputy premier Rich Coleman. “Nothing on the walls but a Christy Clark poster,” as Farnworth recounted.
So it was off to The Bay before it closed to assemble work clothes suitable for a face-to-face with folks driven from their homes by the worst fire season in living memory.
While Farnworth was relaying all this to me, enter Premier John Horgan, who was just leaving his office for the day, coming over to congratulate the minister on his working-class attire and get a report from the field.
Farnworth, never lacking for a good anecdote, told about meeting a woman who’d fled the flames with 20 newly-hatched ducklings in tow plus “one unhatched egg.”
Which egg she sheltered next to her chest, and which egg hatched en route to Kamloops, whereupon she found herself bonded with a baby duck.
The premier and the solicitor general then exchanged words about more serious matters, before Farnworth moved on, perhaps to see if his office was as bare as when he’d left it.
Horgan then turned to chat with some folks on the sidewalk who’d recognized the new premier. As I moved on, he was indulging in their wish for selfies.
All the while, waiting patiently in the driveway was the premier’s RCMP detail alongside the heavy-duty SUV that is now his means of conveyance between the office and his home in a Victoria suburb.
Unobtrusive but unavoidable, too, given the threats that are the lot of leaders who spend much time in office these days.
The new premier is still adjusting to the security regime and has been known to bound from the vehicle before it has stopped moving to greet a friend or supporter he’s recognized in the street.
Such is Horgan’s propensity for schmoozing that staffers joke that in order to keep him on schedule, they may have to install childproof locks in the back seat of the SUV.
Four years ago this summer, he and the New Democrats were as discouraged as they’ve ever been, after losing a provincial election they expected to win.
Farnworth, Victoria MLA Rob Fleming, and others spoke of packing it in after one more term in Opposition. Carole James, still smarting over her ouster from the party leadership, seemed fed up. Then-leader Adrian Dix seethed over what he regarded as an election that was all but stolen by the B.C. Liberals: “They were cheating and they knew they were cheating.”
Horgan confessed that the unexpected defeat “made me retch.” By fall 2013, he was so discouraged about the state of affairs in the party (“difficulty, acrimony, division”) he bowed out of the race to succeed Dix.
Talked back into accepting the post the following spring, he continued to convey frustration. His temper sometimes flared, particularly in dealings with the legislative press gallery.
“I am sick and tired of being the negative Nelly that I have to be as leader of the Opposition,” he confessed to a convention of the building trades just last year.
Today Premier Horgan has put the negatives and the frustrations behind him, his famous temper in check. (In case it flares, some staffers are on hand to perform as what are referred to jokingly as “the John whisperers.”)
James is his deputy premier, minister of finance, and one of the most widelyadmired politicians in B.C. Farnworth is NDP house leader as well as solicitor general. Fleming, far from being retired to the golf course, is minister of education. Dix inherited health, a ministry whose workload may be the equal of his own capacity for hard work.
Of course they and their colleagues in the new government are still pinching themselves, not quite able to believe how quickly the tables turned in their favour.
The Liberals losing their majority, making fools of themselves with a dubious scheme to orchestrate a second election, Christy Clark fleeing, rather than face Horgan and crew from the Opposition benches, leaving her party unprepared for a leadership race.
Sure, there are huge challenges and more than a few surprises ahead. Sure, the mandate will fray sooner than the rookies expect. Sure, the tables could turn on the New Democrats as decisively as they did on the Liberals.
Horgan, Farnworth, James and Dix, having served in various capacities in the last NDP government, know that as well as anyone. But for now, mere weeks into the new jobs, they can’t stop smiling.
The new premier is still adjusting to the security regime and has been known to bound from the vehicle before it has stopped moving to greet a friend or supporter he’s recognized in the street.
In the course of acknowledging Tom Berger’s legal and judicial credentials on Friday, I mistakenly promoted him to the Supreme Court of Canada. Though many would say he should have been appointed to the high court, he in fact served on the B.C. Supreme Court from 1972 to 1983. vpalmer@postmedia.com Twitter.com/VaughnPalmer