Lake remains in the nose-bleed section
No front-row ticket for Terry Lake. The biggest surprise of a rather uninspiring cabinet shuffle Monday is that the Kamloops-North Thompson MLA is still a backbencher.
I fully expected to be writing an article defending Lake’s choice for cabinet despite the HST fiasco (for which he can hardly be blamed, though he’s made a few untimely remarks).
Boosting him to cabinet would have made good political sense. Since he’s likely to be among the first MLAs targeted for recall, it seemed a sure bet Premier Gordon Campbell would throw him a lifeline with the added credibility of a cabinet post.
Beyond that, the sometimes irascible Lake has a lot of qualities that make him cabinet material — smart, politically savvy (most of the time), and a fast study on issues.
During the last election, it was rumored he was in line for the transportation portfolio as soon as he sewed up the win. When he squeaked in and the appointment didn’t happen, it seemed all he’d need was some experience and some patience until the next shuffle.
Instead, the relatively unknown Stephanie Cadieux from Surrey is the only cabinet newcomer. A nice enough resume, including having been active in a paraplegic association (she’s a wheelchair user) before being elected in 2009, and sitting on a few standing committees since. But hardly head and shoulders above Lake.
Meanwhile, Kevin Krueger gets a welcome break from being hammered by the cranky B.C. arts community over cuts to government funding, changing portfolios to social development.
At first glance, I’m not seeing how this shuffle helps the Campbell government much.
Latest Angus Reid poll, a couple of weeks ago, shows the New Democrats with double the popular support of the Liberals and obliterating them in the Interior of the province if an election were held now. Both Lake and Krueger would lose their jobs to an NDP inland tsunami, while the Liberals would be left with an enclave in the Lower Mainland.
Yet, Cadieux from the Coast is elevated to Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development (a piece of which is from Krueger’s old collection of portfolios) while Lake is left in the nose-bleed section.
The big question, of course, is why Finance Minister Colin Hansen is still finance Minister Colin Hansen. The only answer coming to mind is that the premier had no choice. To move him would be to hand Fight HST a new round of ammunition.
I’m sure political science professors — those leftie academics we in the media so love to quote at such times — will have all kinds of not-very-useful things to say about Hansen, Campbell and the rest.
But good for the poli sci profs — they’re about the only ones interested in this latest cabinet “realignment.”
Vaughn Palmer — one of my favourite columnists mostly because he writes things I agree with — wrote yesterday that “the problem is not with the shufflees, it is with the shuffler.”
In other words, the new lineup is merely a short-term distraction until Campbell is ready to quit.
Meanwhile, Terry Lake waits patiently back in row 19 with his binoculars trained on the action up at the front benches.
AT THE MOMENT, Lake’s chair in the legislature is a little south of the NDP seats, across from the main body of Liberals. Directly across the floor from him is none other than Stephanie Cadieux, who will, of course, be moving to a spot with a better view.
mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca
ArmchairMayor.ca 
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