We really have to hand it to Premier Christy Clark – not only the way she handled last month's provincial election, but also how she is setting up the B.C. Liberal government for the next four years.
Lets face it, Clark almost single-handedly pulled a rabbit from the hat during the campaign – well, she got a little help from NDP Leader Adrian Dix who bumbled and stumbled down the stretch.
During the televised debate, it looked like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders and she started carrying herself like a strong and confident leader.
The premier continues to show that confidence and those strong leadership qualities as she shapes her new government.
Clark is definitely putting a new face on the B.C. Liberal government.
While some of the changes have come out of necessity due to the retirement of several longtime MLAs and some cabinet ministers, these were the same members of government who were onboard when the party was on the brink of disaster.
There is little doubt the B.C. Liberals got a real scare during the election campaign.
It's also reasonable to assume the premier saw the light and realized her government has to change the way it does things if it's going to survive another election.
This is why she has brought a lot of the first time MLAs into the inner circle – they're bright, eager and many bring a lot of municipal government experience with them.
Clark sees them as the future and wants to train and mold them from the ground up.
This became abundantly apparent when she handed out to-do lists to her MLAs detailing what she expects them to accomplish during the B.C. Liberal government's mandate.
Premier Clark appears to be moving towards government transparency, as she has also produced a ministerial list, detailing everything she expects her cabinet ministers to get done in the next four years.
We applaud her for that move because it will give British Columbians a report card to check off as the various items are accomplished.
Conversely, it will let us know what's not being accomplished and, therefore, where pressure must be applied.
However, there were two items we didn't like hearing this past week.
One was the loss of having a Minister of State for Seniors. Now seniors issues fall into the hands of a parliamentary secretary.
The other was Clark's promise to "update" February's provincial budget during the upcoming summer session – that brings back those awful memories of the HST debacle.