VanRamblings spent election day with Vancouver-Point Grey New Democratic Party candidate and recent Minister of Justice and Attorney General, David Eby, waving signs and greeting and speaking with voters, as throughout the day the indefatigable Mr. Eby stated that he seemed certain that he was in the political fight of life, his prospects for re-election uncertain, arising from the upbeat, intently focused campaign his BC Green Party rival, Dr. Devyani Singh, had waged, and although he didn’t say so, also arising from the campaign his B.C. Liberal opponent, Mark Bowen, had run — a world class dirty campaign that all but accused the ever-so-kind, humble and always gracious and forthcoming MLA — friend to many, always on your side, there for you in times of personal crisis, who operates one of the most activist constituency offices in the province — of “foul play,” involving the death of a young woman on October 19th, whose remains were found inside a recycling bin near Hadden Beach, situated between Kitsilano Beach & Vancouver’s Maritime Museum. Bad form, Mr. Bowen.
Fortunately, David’s campaign manager, Gala Milne, was more upbeat about the prospects of her candidate winning re-election in his west side Vancouver riding. Of course, there was VanRamblings, who assured Mr. Eby that, “David, you are the most trusted political figure in the province. However effective Dr. Singh’s campaign may prove to be, you are certain to be re-elected with a comfortable and comforting margin of victory.”
David smiled wanly, but with a renewed spring in his step as he moved to speak with a handful of ethusiastic voters — socially safe distanced, with everyone wearing masks — happy to see the candidate for whom they had cast their ballot earlier in the day, wishing David well, and good fortune.
Post 2020 British Columbia Provincial Election News
-
Besieged and beleagured B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson announced at a press conference yesterday that he would be resigning his leadership of the party, and staying on in his current role until such time as a new leader is chosen. Only thing is, though, he didn’t consult with his caucus before he made his terse 97-second announcement at 2pm yesterday afternoon. There are those in the party, and the B.C. Liberal caucus, who would like to see him leave now, and an interim leader appointed pending a set date for the upcoming leadership race.
Well, here we are in the middle of a pandemic when potential leadership hopefuls couldn’t possibly wage any kind of high profile campaign to win the leadership of the party — and there’s a big “if” involved in that calculation. The B.C. Liberal Party is in such rough shape that they’re likely to be out of power for the next couple of elections — kind of like the federal Liberals were for 11 years when Stephen Harper was in power, and where both the woebegone Saskatchewan NDP and a glum federal Conservative Party find themselves at the moment. Still and all, contenders for the B.C. Liberal leadership will emerge. Kamloops MLA Todd Stone, if he can keep his nose clean, as he couldn’t in 2018 will run. Former Surrey Mayor and Conservative MP Dianne Watts would be presumed to run for the leadership — but under current Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum her beloved home town is in such terrible shape she’s under a great deal of pressure to announce her 2022 candidacy for Surrey Mayor. Then there’s Vancouver MLA Michael Lee — but word on the street is that he wants to run for Mayor of Vancouver in 2022. Vancouver City Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung — a progressive, quasi-left-of-centre political figure — could make a run; she’s certainly got a team in place to mount a winning bid for the B.C. Liberal leadership.
Premier John Horgan announced yesterday afternoon that there would be a delay in the $1,000 COVID-19 relief benefit his party had committed to getting out the door by early December, stating that resultant from a count of the mail-in ballots that could finish as late as November 16th. “”We are going to await the final results, a new government will be sworn in towards the end of November, and then we will look to see if there is any time left for a legislative session that could get the payment out the door for the holiday season,” Horgan said, adding that he will continue to operate as Premier, while his other ministers will continue to serve in their pre-election jobs until a new cabinet is sworn in.
Cabinet Sweepstakes. Who’s In? Who’s Out? What’ll Occur?
Well, you can say good-bye to seven of John Horgan’s first term Cabinet ministers pictured above, all of whom chose not to run in 2020, including outgoing Finance Minister Carole James; Shane Simpson, minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction; Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development; Judy Darcy, minister for Mental Health and Addictions; Michelle Mungall, minister of Jobs and Economic Development; Scott Fraser, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, and Claire Trevena, Transportation Minister.
As we wrote yesterday, our beloved David Eby is on his way out of the hard slogging Minister of Justice & Attorney General portfolio, to be replaced by incoming Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA, Murray Rankin, leaving Mr. Eby headed to a “good news,” high profile Housing portfolio — where David Eby could fulfill a key BC NDP promise, and build the 110,000 truly affordable homes under housed British Columbians need — housing as a human right.
In the first term of the Horgan government David Eby sat as a member of the Inner Cabinet, where all the important decisions of the government were made, sitting with Horgan’s trusted advisors, Finance Minister Carole James, Health Minister Adrian Dix, and Solicitor General and Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth, and the Premier’s Chief of Staff, Geoff Meggs, as an ex-officio member of the inner circle of the B.C. NDP government.
For those who don’t know, David Eby is the “chosen one” — John Horgan’s preferred successor, should he decide to step down as Premier at age 63 in late 2023, after 33 years working in and around government.
David Eby has been groomed for the role of Premier dating back to the time when then BC NDP leader Adrian Dix made Mr. Eby the outsized focus of his attention for election to office. In order to pave the way for his chosen successor, Horgan will need to create the conditions for Mr. Eby that will all but guarantee his ascension to the Premier’s office — that means, treating David Eby as he has his friend, Health Minister Adrian Dix, by giving Housing Minister Eby the budget necessary (Horgan has doubled the Health care budget for Dix, since 2017) to not only fulfill the BC NDP affordable housing commitment, but succeed in making David Eby the Minister of Good News for the Horgan government, and Horgan’s natural successor.
What’s that you say? Cough, cough. You thought newly-elected Stikine MLA Nathan Cullen would become the next Premier, when Mr. Horgan steps down? So naïve. Throughout the election, you had John Horgan telling any reporter who’d listen, how “stupid” Nathan Cullen was for an off-hand remark he’d made during a Zoom campaign function, about a Haida Nation B.C. Liberal North Coast candidate, Roy S Jones Jr.
Prior to Cullen’s gaffe, Mr. Cullen was slated to take over the role of Finance Minister from Carole James, a role he’d played as shadow Cabinet Minister under federal NDP leaders Jack Layton, Tom Mulcair and Jagmeet Singh.
Should Premier Horgan pull a Christy Clark — when she appointed her unambitious lapdog, Mike De Jong as Finance Minister in 2014 — and appoint trusted lieutenant Mike Farnworth as his incoming, second-term Finance Minister, you’ll know that Nathan Cullen is not only in John Horgan’s doghouse, it’d be a sign that the Premier has no intention of giving Cullen a high profile role in his government, to aid his ambitions to take over as leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party.
Politics. Ain’t it a barrel o’ laughs.
Still and all, Nathan Cullen is not to be denied, whatever the Premier’s intentions. Quite simply, Nathan Cullen is the single most charismatic politician in Canada, if not the continent. In the 1970s, the greatest delight voters could experience was to listen to “Little Fat Dave” Barrett on the campaign trail, a mix of the politics of author and comedian Charles Demers, and the most engaging of vaudeville performers. If you’ve ever heard Nathan Cullen speak, and watched him keep an audience spellbound for an hour relating how he got into politics, you’ve found yourself fortunate to witness magic. Make no mistake: Nathan Cullen will run for leader of the B.C. NDP one day, David Eby or no David Eby, Horgan or no John Horgan.
The Horgan Cabinet Sweepstakes. All The Remaining NDP Electeds
Newly-elected Vancouver-False Creek MLA, and Sam Sullivan Giant Killer, Brenda Bailey is headed to Jobs and Economic Development. Bowinn Ma, who won her North Vancouver-Lonsdale riding with 58.11% of the vote, and brought along newly-elected North Vancouver-Seymour MLA Susie Chant with her, is slated for big things in a second-term Horgan government — Minister of Transportation would be both a logical and a good fit, but let’s face it, Bowinn Ma can write her own ticket when it comes to Cabinet. Of course, Premier John Horgan will keep a 50-50 gender balance in Cabinet, while ensuring regional representation in his Cabinet.
Tofino mayor Josie Osborne, the newly-elected Mid Island-Pacific Rim MLA, could very well fit into her predecessor’s role as Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, or perhaps Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, while re-elected Nanaimo MLA Sheila Malcolmson could step in as Environment Minister, and newly-elected North Island MLA Michele Babchuk becomes incoming Education Minister — because current, beleaguered Education Minister Rob Fleming will certainly be vacating his post come the end of November. The Premier will want to place Mr. Fleming in a low profile portfolio where he can do no harm. So, that takes care of Vancouver Island.
In Metro Vancouver, Adrian Dix returns as Health Minister, David Eby — as above — goes to Housing, re-elected West End MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert becomes the new Speaker of the House, George Heyman is shuffled to the Ministry of Labour, while the current Minister, Harry Bains becomes Minister of Citizens’ Services, while Anne Kang shuffles into a new, as yet undecided role in an expanded second-term John Horgan Cabinet, while Katrina Chen becomes Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, shutting out activist Vancouver-Kingsway MLA Cabinet Minister Mable Elmore (alas). Rubbing salt into Ms. Elmore’s wounds, word on the street is that first-term Vancouver-Hastings MLA Niki Sharma is slated for a junior portfolio in a second-term B.C. New Democrat Horgan Cabinet.
Selina Robinson retains her role as Minister of Municipal Affairs, George Chow remains Minister of State for Trade, Mike Farnworth becomes remains House Leader, and either maintains his Solicitor General / Public Safety portfolio, or becomes the new Finance Minister, newly-elected New Westminster MLA Jennifer Whiteside transitions into Judy Darcy’s old role as Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. Bruce Ralston returns as Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources. Lisa Beare remains Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture. Melanie Mark could very well become Education Minister if Michele Babchuk is not given the role, although it’s possible that Ms. Mark could become Minister of Children and Family Development, leaving the current Minister, Katrine Conroy to transition into a new, as yet undefined role. Or Katrina Conroy emerges as Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, if that role doesn’t go to newly-elected and first term Langley MLA Andrew Mercier. Then there’s recent Port Moody-Coquitlam NDP MP, Fin Donnelly — now the newly-elected MLA for Coquitlam-Burke Mountain — who was an NDP stalwart federally. Seems to this writer, that the world of British Columbia politics is Mr. Donnelly’s oyster, and he can rest assured that Mr. Horgan has much good that is in store for him. This prediction business — it can all be just a bit too much.
Should Nathan Cullen lose his opportunity to take on the Finance portfolio, he becomes the new Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, taking on the role of his predecessor, Doug Donaldson. Lana Popham proved a popular and competent Minister of Agriculture in the first term Horgan Cabinet, so that’s where she’ll stay — unless Mr Horgan makes the changes outlined above. Mr. Horgan, with a larger caucus, could not split Ministries, hiving them off. We’ll see.
And, then, there are all the Parliamentary Secretary positions to fill (hello, Mable Elmore), as well as two deputy speaker positions to aid Spencer Chandra Herbert, and committee chair positions — ain’t nobody gonna be left wanting in the NDP caucus by the time Horgan is done making his appointments. And there’s all that extra cash, too, that caucus members will make for the work they’re taking on to make change for the better.
We’ll leave you with this for today. Longtime journalist Tom Hawthorn — with whom I worked at The Peak student newspaper at SFU in the late seventies / early 80s, when I was working on my Masters, and he and Deb Wilson were an item, not that Tom’s ever remembs me … there’s something to be said for being unmemorable and an anonymous figure to people I’ve met and worked with over the years (& having a great memory) — and his reflection in The Tyee on the meaning of Decision 2020 …
No PST. More cops. Private auto insurance. The BC Liberals ran an exemplary campaign — for rural Alberta.
A party that is too male, too white and too clearly uninterested in the life of people without stock (whether in a safe deposit box in the city or on the range in the Cariboo) took a shellacking. Rebuilding will be hard, as the Liberals are saddled with out-of-touch social conservatives. Is there a conversion therapy capable of making Laurie Throness love all God’s children?
For 75 years, a coalition of business interests — operating as (no kidding) the Coalition, the Social Credit party and, after a hostile takeover in 1993, the BC Liberals — has existed solely to keep the CCF/NDP out of power while sharing the spoils among friends. (You don’t triple delete computer files when you’re doing good deeds.) Before John Horgan, the NDP served as government in this province for just 13 years. The party last won a plurality of the vote 29 years ago. With dominance on Vancouver Island and in Greater Vancouver, combined with forays deep into the previously infertile soil of the Fraser Valley, Horgan’s NDP is positioning itself as the preferred choice for a diverse coalition of voters, including young suburban families. (How’s that for irony? The BC Liberals’ decades-long neglect on the housing file has contributed to demographic changes now costing them once-guaranteed ridings).
The NDP’s strategic ambition is to replace a pro-business party as the voters’ default choice. Last night’s landslide was either a once-in-a-generation fluke, or the beginning of a historic political realignment. Evidence suggests it is more the latter.
A few more brief notes: Voters reward good governance. Thanks to Sonia Furstenau’s steady presence in the debates, the Greens earned a last-minute reprieve from the executioner. They will be rejoicing, but the party’s vote total decreased slightly from three years ago and they remain a minor party. The banning of corporate and union money was an under reported element in the campaign. No last-minute infusion of cash could rescue the Liberals or doom the Greens.
Both Furstenau and Horgan opened with Indigenous land acknowledgements. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson, speaking at the One Wall Centre in Vancouver, did not do so. How come Wilkinson didn’t at least give a territorial acknowledgement to Peter Wall?
Horgan will surpass Dave Barrett’s tenure as Premier on Wednesday and Glen Clark’s tenure 86 days after that. He is 54 weeks behind Mike Harcourt’s tenure as longest serving NDP Premier.
Well, that’s it for today — not as pointed and as riotous a column as I’d originally intended (it must be this getting old thing) — but part two of VanRamblings’ post mortem on our recently completed (well, almost over) BC provincial election. More tomorrow. All about the B.C. Green Party.
