Should communities in BC’s interior be encouraged by the fact that incoming premier Lorne Doerkson is from Williams Lake? Possibly, says one political science professor.
“I hope a premier is going to be magnanimous and represents all parts of the province equally,” said University of Northern British Columbia lecturer Jason Morris. “But absolutely, knowledge of local nuances and regional particularisms is going to help that person.”
Morris noted having a premier from the interior is not unpredecented: W.A.C. Bennett and his son Bill, who were by turns premier for most of the years between 1952 and 1986, were from Kelowna. (Going much further back, Dr. John Duncan McLean, who was premier in 1927-28, was from Greenwood. He had previously been a schoolteacher in Rossland.)
The difference, Morris said, is that the Bennetts governed during a time of “great prosperity and province building in which not just a single region was given attention to.”
“I’d be concerned for any premier from any place that just focused on their area to the detriment of others,” he said. “I don’t think any British Columbian wants that.”
The bulk of BC’s interior will be represented by Conservatives in the next legislature. Notable exceptions are the ridings of Kootenay Central and Kootenay-Monashee, which re-elected their NDP MLAs.
Morris said because the province’s main population centres are in Metro Vancouver and on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, those areas will always have great influence, so it’s up to individual MLAs from outside of those areas to advocate for the interests of their regions, regardless of party affiliation.
While elections in BC have previously been won by promising to remove bridge tolls or build tunnels, Morris said BC is “basically broke with a big debt that’s only going to get worse,” so completing major infrastructure projects will require “significant economic growth and/or a boost in taxes and/or cuts to other things that we might otherwise cherish.”
Doerkson has yet to name a cabinet. Morris said while you might assume that ministers are chosen based on their existing expertise in various subject areas, many other considerations are at play, including gender, ethnic, and geographic diversity.
“It would be considered a disappointment and unacceptable if cabinet ministers were only from a certain part of the province,” Morris said. “Absolutely the premier has to choose people from all parts of BC.”
Although the NDP will no longer form government after nine years, Morris said the party has previously been known as a “very strong and effective opposition.”
“While the NDP is certainly down for the count right now, when they pick themselves up from the mat, they have a tremendously important job to make sure that government keeps to its promises or bends a bit to where the NDP would like to see things to go.”
Morris said he has told his students that one year or four years from now, things might not seem to have changed much, because government gears tend to grind slowly. But he added that citizens can play a role in holding government to account.
