Premier John Horgan has wisely apologized to Gordon Wilson, the LNG advocate fired last week for, it seems, no good reason other than his preference for the B.C. Liberals.
Horgan said there was little evidence that Wilson did anything to justify his $150,000-a-year salary. No reports, Horgan said. No briefings. No memos. Nothing.
Jobs Minister Bruce Ralston declared that Wilson did little, other than cashing his cheques.
Then Wilson threatened to sue Horgan and Ralston, saying their comments were not based in fact.
And then Mike Smyth of the Province newspaper found reports on his work — on the government’s website.
Horgan and Ralston were wrong. They fired an appointed official without getting their facts straight. And it’s worse than that; their comments sent a message to everyone in the civil service, a warning that no matter how hard they work, they could find themselves not only fired by their political masters, but smeared as they head out the door.
Petty insults are what we expect from Opposition MLAs. Let’s hope Horgan and Ralston adjust to their new, more responsible roles soon.
The premier and his ministers will probably make a few more rookie mistakes. Until they get past that, we all need to be more skeptical of what they tell us.
We still believe the government should consider competence, not just political loyalty, when hiring and firing senior appointees. We referred to Wilson in an editorial on the topic last week, based on those false allegations. We should not have trusted Horgan and Ralston.
So, now that the apologies are out of the way, will Horgan and Ralston be honest about the reason why Wilson was fired? A reason that will be based on facts, not wishful thinking? Perhaps they should read his reports — that’s right, the ones they said did not exist — to get a sense of what he has been doing.
