It's been quite the week for Christy Clark.
First, she announced that Westside-Kelowna MLA Ben Stewart would be giving up his seat so she could run in a byelection this summer. She lost narrowly in Gordon Campbell's old riding of Vancouver-Point Grey last month but she will have no problem winning this seat and taking her place in the legislature.
The Kelowna riding is sacred ground in B.C. political history as the home of both W.A.C. Bennett and then Bill Bennett. In their wildest dreams, the NDP can't even imagine taking this riding.
That hasn't stopped NDP leader Adrian Dix from saying the NDP will put forward their best local candidate to try and wrestle the seat from Clark. Contrast that reaction to Jane Sterk, the leader of the B.C. Greens, who quickly declared that the Greens will not contest the seat because the Liberals won the election and the leader of the Liberals should have a seat in the legislature.
Sterk's response is gracious to Clark, respectful to the electorate who put the Liberals back in power and follows well-established Canadian political tradition of what opposing parties do normally when a party wins an election but the leader loses his or her individual seat.
In other words, Dix wants to fight the election all over again. That would be the election he lost because he and his party put so much effort into David Eby's campaign in Vancouver-Point Grey that they forgot to run a campaign in the rest of the Lower Mainland. Instead of welcoming the opportunity to debate the premier on the issues in the legislature, Dix and his group of sore losers are going to take one more crack at Clark.
This opinion is not based on political stripes. If the election results had been reversed with the NDP winning a majority but Dix losing his seat and the Liberals contesting wherever Dix would be running in a byelection, the response would the same. The Liberals would be the sore losers and Dix would be the one deserving of more courtesy from the party in opposition.
Perhaps this is what Dix meant all along by "time for a change" - disregard political courtesy and tradition to fight a battle already lost.
Speaking of change, however, Clark embraced change but also leaned on steady, experienced hands when announcing her cabinet Friday.
Mike de Jong remains in finance while Rich Coleman has been given the task of making Clark's vision of a debt-free B.C. a reality as minister of natural gas development. Shirley Bond moves over to Pat Bell's old job as jobs minister and Terry Lake now leads the environment ministry.
The changing of the guard comes in the form of Suzanne Anton, a former Crown prosecutor, taking over from Bond as attorney general (restoring another political tradition that the attorney general also be a lawyer), Peter Fassbender, a former school trustee and mayor of Langley, now finds himself as education minister, and Amrik Virk, a former board member at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, steps into the minister of advanced education office.
Another new face on the Liberal bench that went straight to cabinet was Coralee Oakes, a Quesnel city councillor, who becomes minister of community, sport and cultural development.
If there is a disappointment in Clark's cabinet lineup, it's John Rustad, the MLA for Nechako Lakes. Rustad was a loyal soldier during his time on the backbenches and he earned praise on both sides of the political aisle for his work on the timber supply review. He would have been a nice fit as forests minister. Unfortunately, Steve Thomson of Kelowna, who would seem to be an agriculture minister in waiting because of his tenure as head of the B.C. Fruit Growers Association, remains as forests minister.
Instead, Rustad is now aboriginal affairs minister. While Rustad certainly has built numerous relationships with First Nations across the Central Interior, it would have been nice to see him lead the ministry he clearly has a passion for.
Clark has assembled her team and she's taken steps to join her colleagues in the legislature as soon as possible. Now the hard work begins.
