Everyone鈥檚 a critic.
Or, at least that鈥檚 the way it seems when you look at the B.C. Liberals new shadow cabinet.
Nearly all of the 43 Liberal MLAs who were elected earlier this year now have a critic鈥檚 role and the few who don鈥檛, like former Finance Minister Mike de Jong, the party鈥檚 House leader and Linda Larson, the party鈥檚 whip, have other jobs to keep them busy in addition to their MLA responsibilities.
In the case of the Central Okanagan鈥檚 two remaining MLAs, Steve Thomson and Norm Letnick, they will pick up where they left off, just on the other side of the house. Letnick, the province鈥檚 former agriculture minister is one of two agriculture critics and Thomson, the only Liberal tapped for double duty in the shadow cabinet, is now citizen鈥檚 services critic and one of two trade critics.
His appointment to the trade critic鈥檚 role is likely because of his experience with the softwood lumber issue when he was B.C.鈥檚 forests, lands and natural resources minister.
Like past NDP Oppositions, the Liberals have doubled up when it comes to critics, naming two per ministry in most cases鈥攁 full court press to keep the new NDP government鈥檚 feet to the fire.
It should, however, come as no surprise. Thomson said when he was a minister in the last Liberal government, he had four NDP critics dogging him, all specializing in different areas of his huge ministry.
With former 琉璃神社 West MLA and party leader Christy Clark quitting politics as of last Friday, and the B.C. Greens pledging the support of its three MLAs to keep the NDP in power, it鈥檚 clear the new Liberal critics will be in their positions for a while.
Premier John Horgan is in no rush to call a byelection in 琉璃神社 West, a seat that is seen as a virtual lock for whoever runs for the Liberals. By holding off, he keeps the now two-seat advantage over the Liberals that Clark gave him as her going away present. That means the threat of an early provincial election has been eliminated as long as he and Green Party leader Andrew Weaver continue to play nice.
Meanwhile, 琉璃神社 West residents find themselves without political representation鈥攁s least for the foreseeable future. Horgan has six months to call a by-election and it鈥檚 unclear in the meantime if the constituents Clark had vowed to stay on to fight for will now have to turn to Letnick or Thomson for help should they need it.
Clark鈥檚 assertion her departure will help her now former party rebuild may be true in the broad sense, but it鈥檚 not doing anything for the constituents she leaves behind.
Alistair Waters is the assistant editor of the Capital News.
