Les Leyne: Uncertain future
N o guest list, no bagpipes and no future past Canada Day.
Premier Christy Clark went through the motions of getting a new cabinet sworn in Monday at Government House. But the dramatically scaled down event made it clear everyone in the new lineup — including the premier — knows they are stand-ins until the first confidence vote in the legislature, some time this month.
It made for a very low-energy launch. Clark is not going to spend much time arguing about the size of the crowd at her inauguration, à la Donald Trump. There wasn’t one. Instead of the main ballroom with hundreds of people, the ministers signed up for their brief hitches in an anteroom about the size of two condo units.
The lieutenant-governor walked in without benefit of the traditional skirling pipes, and administered the oaths to the ministers. Afterward, they put out some cookies. Apparently, you have to look as if you’re going to last longer than one paycheque to qualify for canapés and chamber music.
It was Finance Minister Mike de Jong’s seventh swearing-in over his career in politics. After laying an impromptu dance move on Clark at last week’s swearing-in of the entire B.C. Liberal caucus, he reprised the steps in the Government House lobby.
“Dancing with Fallen Stars,” he joked.
Clark knows her shelf life as well as anyone, but said the justice ministry advised that convention must be observed. So she not only introduced 22 ministers and 13 parliamentary secretaries, she outlined a detailed agenda of things that she is unlikely to have enough time to do. The Liberal thinking is that they won the election, so they have an obligation to keep up appearances, even though they’re headed for the record books as the shortest government ever.
Even though her party gets first crack at forming a government, she acknowledged that they’re presenting what will likely be a backup. If “the outcome that nobody is expecting” happens (the Liberals secure the confidence of the legislature and carry on), they have to be prepared to govern.
She previewed the throne speech coming up next week as a series of lessons from what the voters told her government during the election, when it reduced her seat count enough so that the NDP and the Greens can outvote the Liberals.
She wants to respond to the needs of urban areas — the Liberals took a beating in metro Vancouver — and to families across B.C.
She wants to make life more affordable, give children the best supports, protect the environment and build communities with a high quality of life.
“We will propose all those ideas in the context of balanced budgets, low taxes and getting to yes on economic development.”
The more paranoid anti-Liberal elements are still twitchy about whether the Liberals are really going down. After 16 years in the wilderness, some can scarcely believe the Liberals are going to relinquish power. There must be some stunt she can pull, goes the thinking.
Clark seems to be entertaining a tiny sliver of hope. “We don’t know what’s going to happen. This is B.C., after all.”
But she conceded the fall of her government is the likeliest scenario.
“Politics is a business where the unexpected always happens. My job is to provide stability and focus and be thinking about the future in the midst of what is inherently an unstable business.”
So the new cabinet is like an all-star lineup that will be benched days after taking to the ice. The throne speech will look like a mea culpa delivered too late for an apology to make any difference.
Moments after the swearing-in, new Community Development Minister Sam Sullivan announced another lesson learned: They’re ditching the requirement for a referendum on new metro Vancouver transit funding. That was a requirement imposed by Clark a few years ago that stalled a major transit initiative when it failed.
Just So You Know: There’s also some new language to reflect the lessons the Liberals learned. A backgrounder includes the phrase “working with our municipal partners.” After years of pitched battles, very few local leaders ever thought they’d hear those words put together by a Liberal government.