Congratulations, Christy Clark, soon-to-be-B.C.’s 35th premier and the second woman to hold the job.
Some critics compare Ms. Clark to Bill Vander Zalm. Others say she’s B.C.’s Sarah Palin. Feminists hope she’ll do better than former female leaders Kim Campbell and Rita Johnson. Some hope she’s Margaret Thatcher with charisma.
Whatever, she worked hard, made the right moves, and won the votes, if not all the hearts, of the Liberal party.
And she did it without support from the Liberal cabinet ministers or caucus. Surely that tells a story. Her supporters are expecting changes. She hasn’t made many specific promises but changing a political system can be tricky.
All was love and kisses Saturday night, but will the party-power people co-operate with the new premier? That’s the question. Will she have to relieve them of their power?
When she names her cabinet, will she turf some of the current lot and replace them with co-operative backbenchers?
In the interests of party unity she’s unlikely to turf them all, and she has other challenges. She wants to balance the budget by 2013-14. Good luck. She’s been out of the loop for several years, so does she know about issues such as Mr. Campbell’s newly restructured and confused Natural Resource Operations (Monster Ministry)?
What about the new Water Act? She’s for clean energy. Does she have plans for regulating the very dirty process of fracking used in getting natural gas from shale? Should she call an election asap to get a mandate from all B.C. voters? Or should she wait a year or to give voters a chance to see how she’ll govern?
If she’s sure of herself, she’ll wait and strut her stuff so voters have something to approve. Otherwise we’ll be voting on promises and we all know what a crock that can be.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and author.
