Local MLA Shirley Bond now holds all the cards when it comes to B.C. justice as the role of attorney general is added to her portfolio, which includes minister of public safety and solicitor general.
Former attorney general Barry Penner resigned from his cabinet post yesterday and announced he won't be seeking re-election after 15 years in politics, saying the hectic life of a cabinet minister was interfering with fatherhood.
Shortly after his announcement, B.C. Premier Christie Clark gave the job to the Prince George-Valemount MLA.
Clark is only placing Bond in the AG's chair on an interim basis to cover for Barry Penner who stepped down from the job this week in order to concentrate on his young family. She is already the Solicitor General and responsible for public safety.
"Premier Clark's thinking is pragmatic," Bond told The Citizen. "I and the AG have worked together on a number of high profile files in recent times. Her comment to me was that it makes sense for me to carry this on an interim basis because we have worked so closely on a number of high profile files."
Other files she and Penner shared recently were strategies to combat organized crime, and the Stanley Cup riot investigations.
"We all feel some degree of frustration on the degree of speed of moving that forward," she said.
"My commitment to the premier was to work as hard as I could to move those files forward. This is going to be a heavy workload."
The appointment is another notch on the belt to the politician, who has carried several high profile portfolios throughout her career, including minister of transportation, minister of education and minister responsible for early learning and literacy.
Penner, 45, was first elected to the legislature in 1996 and has been in cabinet for the past six years.
There has been speculation that Clark could call an election for the fall, but that decision may depend on the results of a referendum on the harmonized sales tax, to be released later this month.
He said the tipping point came earlier this month when he was asked to fill in new nomination papers for his riding of Chillliwack-Hope.
"[It's] not something that's terribly healthy for a young family, to have the father being significantly distracted by not one, but two BlackBerrys and a laptop and phones that never stop ringing - right through weekends and what are supposedly holidays," Penner told reporters in his office in Victoria, speaking alongside his wife and daughter, Fintry, who was born in February.
Clark praised Penner for his "tremendous value to the cabinet table" as the longest-serving minister of environment in Canada, as well as minister of aboriginal relations and reconciliation and most recently as attorney general.
"As much as anyone in public life, I understand the need for striking the right work/life balance," said Clark. "I wish Barry all the best as he enters a new chapter of his life and focuses on his family."
-- With files from CP
