Now that the song-and-dance that was the B.C. Liberal Party leadership race is over and the party faithful have selected our newest premier, it's time for Christy Clark and her hand-picked inner circle to get down to the business of running the province.
Basically, the province has been floating under a cloud of uncertainty since the Anti-HST group won enough support to force the B.C. Liberals to hold a referendum on the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).
This caused the party's popularity to plummet into the basement and, whether he admits it or not, forced to Gordon Campbell fall on his sword for the benefit of B.C. Liberal Party.
And now that Ms. Clark is premier and she and her cabinet have been sworn in by Lieutenant-Governor Steven L. Point, it took Mr. Campbell one day to announce he was stepping down as the Vancouver-Point Grey, thereby making room for Premier Clark to seek a seat in the legislature by winning the by-election.
(Regardless of what people may think of Mr. Campbell, he has served British Columbia faithfully since 1993, and it just wouldn't be right to see him relegated to the backbenches.)
So, the table has been set for Premier Clark to dive into the growing list of chores that have to be dealt with to get the province back on track again.
At the top of the pile, she will have to deal with the HST referendum, the new budget and the next general election.
At the beginning of her race to claim the leadership, Ms. Clark said she would kill the HST, but later changed her mind, and now wants to move the referendum up to June 24 but doesn't know if it can be done or not.
Not much clarity there, but we'll see what comes out in the wash.
Mr. Campbell had promised a 15 per cent tax cut if British Columbian stopped whining about the HST, but that was clawed back when he resigned as leader.
Premier Clark won't likely deal with the budget until after the HST issue is resolved, and the referendum outcome will weigh very heavily on the decision about when to hold the next general election.
Hey, it's early and like former NDP Premier Glen Clark said, "Give me a little wriggle room."
Ken Alexander
Editor, 100 Mile House Free Press
