Premier Christy Clark named her new cabinet last week, but it should be the shortest-serving cabinet in memory, as her government is expected to lose a confidence vote on June 29 and thus fall from power.
And that’s when all eyes will turn to NDP leader John Horgan who, propped up by the B.C. Green Party, will then put together his government’s cabinet.
He may be more challenged in this task than was Clark, who is just running out the string. Horgan, however, hopes to govern for as long as possible, but he’s also facing some tricky navigating as he picks ministers from his 41-member caucus.
While all political parties, for the most part, try to achieve a healthy gender balance when it comes to things like forming a cabinet or fielding a team of candidates, the NDP has much more rigid rules. So Horgan must ensure his cabinet is split 50-50 between men and women. He also faces some interesting geographical challenges. His party won only four seats outside of Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island, which means the Interior and the North will have minimal representation at the cabinet table.
Still, even with these rules and challenges, it’s always fun to play Let’s Make a Cabinet, so let’s get to it.
SURE BETS
Veteran MLAs Carole James, Mike Farnworth and Adrian Dix are pretty much shoo-ins to make the cabinet table. So, too, are a couple of those who are entering their second terms: David Eby and Selina Robinson. James will undoubtedly be named deputy premier and will emerge as one of the strongest performers in cabinet.
NEXT MOST LIKELY
It will be interesting to see how many Vancouver MLAs make the grade. The party has eight MLAs from that city, and all could be considered cabinet material. Of the eight (Eby and Dix are sure bets) it would appear Spencer Chandra-Herbert and Melanie Mark would head the list. But MLAs Shane Simpson and George Heyman also seem likely, as does Mable Elmore. I’ll be surprised if more than one of them is left out.
Winning all those suburban seats helped boost the NDP seat count and that will undoubtedly be reflected in the make-up of cabinet. So look for Bruce Ralston, Judy Darcy, Harry Bains and some newcomers to be chosen.
Outside of Metro, I’ll wager on Doug Donaldson, Michelle Mungall, Claire Trevena and Lana Popham to make the grade.
NEWCOMERS
The election result injected a lot of new blood into the NDP caucus (15 new faces) and that has to show up at the cabinet table.
I would say the best bets from this bunch are Bowinn Ma, Jinny Sims, Ravi Kahlon and Katrina Chen (all from Metro Vancouver).
Finally, how about veteran MLA Rob Fleming for Speaker? Or perhaps that will fall to veteran MLA Raj Chouhan, who has served as deputy speaker.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global B.C.
