Former B.C. finance minister Carole Taylor is joining Premier Christy Clark’s staff as a special adviser.
Taylor, who served as Gordon Campbell’s finance minister from 2005 to 2008, will begin her new job with Clark on Monday.
The premier is expected to leverage Taylor’s deep ties in B.C.’s business community, using her to engage corporate leaders, refine the government’s economic policies and provide strategic advice.
Taylor will be paid $1 a year and work part time out of Clark’s Vancouver offices, where she will participate in planning and policy meetings and report directly to the premier.
Clark used to have a similar relationship with Jim Shepard, the former CEO of Canfor and Finning International Inc., who served as her senior policy adviser in 2011 and 2012.
Taylor is also expected to assume some of the duties that used to be fulfilled by Clark’s principal secretary — a job that has sat vacant for seven months, but which generally involved providing policy advice and working on a long-term vision.
As Campbell’s finance minister, Taylor was responsible for some major B.C. policies, including the introduction of the carbon tax in 2008. She left politics in 2008 to chair a federal economic advisory panel, and later became chancellor of Simon Fraser University.
At first glance, Clark and Taylor would appear to have differing approaches to politics. Clark has spoken frequently about enjoying the cut and thrust of political life, including question period and sparring with her critics.
Taylor has made clear she has little time for partisanship and personal attacks, in 2008 calling them “nonsense” and “not my style.”
She has said she prefers developing policy.
“I never mind disagreeing with people on issues,” Taylor told reporters when announcing her retirement as an MLA.
“I think that’s how you get to good decisions. But I’m not interested in ever attacking somebody else personally.”
Taylor’s appointment also bolsters Clark’s ties to the federal Liberal government in Ottawa. Taylor’s late husband, former Vancouver mayor Art Phillips, served briefly as an MP in Pierre Trudeau’s government. Taylor was appointed chairwoman of the CBC and Radio- Canada in 2001 by then-prime minister Jean Chrétien.
The former finance minister has also served on the boards of TD Bank Financial Group and Bell Canada. Earlier in her career, she was a television journalist and an independent Vancouver city councillor.
