Given Julius Caesar’s unfortunate experience, political leaders must be alert during the Ides of March. Here’s how some B.C. leaders fared over the week.
• New Democrat MLA Mike Farnworth is the only full-fledged leadership candidate for his party. But it’s hard to tell. No big new entourage. No noticeable change in his approach. And no particular interest in the race he is currently leading. Technically speaking, one contestant still doesn’t officially make it a race.
There had been small indications that something interesting might develop. Vancouver school board chairwoman Patti Bacchus had been teasing the idea. But she put a halt to the speculation, tweeting: “Considered it for a couple of weeks, but have decided to keep my focus on [the school board].”
With reporters still refusing to come to grips with the idea of Farnworth winning it because no one else wants it, the current rounds of speculation turn to MLAs John Horgan and Rob Fleming.
Horgan bowed out last October, saying the contest was likely to get acrimonious and he didn’t want to stand in the way of new blood.
But a few weeks ago he said he was reconsidering, probably because the new blood hasn’t shown up, and the utter lack of interest was getting embarrassingly boring.
Fleming has been mulling the idea for months and is close to the go or no-go decision. They might or might not make their intentions known next week.
• Justice Minister Suzanne Anton decided that a consultation campaign would improve B.C.’s earthquake preparedness. She wanted to engage all levels of government and get input from additional stakeholders, “including the media.”
The media and everyone else got fully engaged — indeed, fixated — on the second paragraph of the news release, where she said the project would be co-chaired by former Liberal cabinet minister John Les.
There was a canned quote from Les to the effect that “the job of emergency preparedness never ends. It is a field that is constantly evolving.”
So is the field of political patronage, which is what his appointment amounted to. Anton’s innocuous little quake review quickly turned into a quake all by itself. It was enough to give the uncertain minister a good shaking. She fumbled through a lame explanation of why Les was picked. Then she adopted the “stop, drop and roll” defence and exited the hallway.
Premier Christy Clark managed an intriguing response the next day. Knowing the NDP was ready to devote the entire question period to the latest in a long list of patronage handouts, she waited for the first question. NDP Leader Adrian Dix started up on the “wasteful, extra, superfluous, pork-barrelling, double-dipping patronage appointment.”
Then she stood up and fired Les. “The offer will be withdrawn.”
It had the double-barrelled effect of making the issue go away, and leaving the Opposition scrambling.
Les apparently took the news gracefully. Easy come, easy go.
He goes down as the second person Clark has fired during question period. The first was former minister Harry Bloy, who was also axed during the Ides of March two years ago. As well, former minister John Yap’s resignation was accepted in March last year. (Memo to B.C. Liberals: March is not a good month in which to draw the premier’s attention.)
• Speaker Linda Reid sat down in a committee room to face the music over her spending habits. Tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of renovations have been done and her former campaign manager, hired on as an assistant, was racking up commuting bills from Richmond.
Reid tried earlier to tie the renos to the handicapped-access issue. But the impression left was that she is getting free and easy with her budget. Given her supremacy at the legislature, there were enough cross-currents in the room to sink a ship. But the result was a polite curbing of her authority by Opposition and government members. In a public meeting, no less.
You don’t see that every day. But then, until recently, you didn’t see anything to do with the management of the legislature.
