Vaughn Palmer: David Eby’s speech at Horgan memorial homed in on why the former premier did so well in office
VICTORIA — Premier David Eby drew applause and laughter at the memorial service to John Horgan earlier this month when he cited one of his predecessor’s more remarkable accomplishments.
“As a politician, I tell you, he left politics more popular than when he entered,” said Eby. “How did he do that?”
“There’s some lessons for some of us,” continued the premier, fresh from the election where he came within 22 votes of losing the majority inherited from Horgan.
“I hear you Justin,” he added, with a nod to beleaguered Prime Minister Trudeau who was sitting in the front row.
Eby then regaled the crowd of several thousand with anecdotes that helped explain how Horgan did it.
He recalled how Horgan had to be talked into seeking the NDP leadership following the party’s defeat in 2013.
“He was hard to get — and hard to keep.”
Eby, the rookie NDP MLA who’d defeated B.C. Liberal Premier Christy Clark in her own riding, was one of those who helped in the persuading.
Yet before long Eby, never lacking in self-confidence, was giving Horgan advice on how to do the job of leader of the Opposition.
Once in 2015, when Eby was buttonholing Horgan in his office, the leader fired back with: “Eby if you want this” — pause — “job, then I’ll leave the keys on the desk.”
Eby suggested the audience fill in the gap represented by the pause with some not-family-friendly language, before adding the rest of what Horgan said to him: “Then you can knock yourself out and I’ll be the happiest guy in town.”
Horgan’s willingness to walk away from the job gave him the freedom to do it as he saw fit, said Eby, who passed on the opening.
Horgan went on to form government in 2017 on the strength of a power-sharing agreement with the Greens.
Eby then had some advice for the new premier on how to deal with a public service topped with senior bureaucrats who’d served the B.C. Liberals through four terms and 16 years.
“John, you gotta fire these people,” Eby told Horgan. “What’s wrong with you? They are B.C. Liberal people.”
However, apart from giving severance to a few obvious Christy Clark acolytes, Horgan kept the senior bureaucracy in place.
“He knew that we would have been behind the eight ball if we had to build up a whole new team,” Eby reflected. “He knew that the public service had a key role and he had confidence in them.
“One of the biggest mistakes that I thought John made turned out to be one of the smartest decisions,” Eby conceded.
Premier Horgan loaded up the most restless and ambitious member of his caucus, Eby, with a heavy workload.
One assignment was steering a promised referendum on proportional representation, a commitment enshrined in the power-sharing agreement with the Greens.
“Not my dream gig,” said Eby, who nevertheless threw himself into the assignment with characteristic attention to detail.
“I was fairly convinced that a lot of British Columbians spent a lot of time thinking about electoral reform,” joked Eby.
The result was a ballot with two questions. The first asked if people wanted to switch to proportional representation. The second offered three different electoral systems.
Eby recounted his experience in presenting the two-ballot proposal to a premier who’d only heard of one of the three options for electoral reform.
“He looked at me and his face twitched a little bit,” Eby deadpanned. “He said ‘OK,’ and that was all he said.”
The referendum failed.
“He was willing to let you make a mistake and give you all the rope that you wanted,” said Eby. “Sometimes it worked out and sometimes you got the second worst referendum in the history of B.C.”
In an aside to the ex-Horgan ministers in the audience, Eby addressed a few, telling words about his predecessor’s style of governing: “You know you got to run your files.”
The former premier was even willing to cut some slack to those who were clearly not on Team Horgan including — gasp! — political columnists.
To Horgan, “those folks were just mistaken, they weren’t actually bad people,” said Eby
“He always believed in people. He didn’t believe in parties. John was always welcoming. He was always willing to work with people. He was always ready to create space for people who made mistakes.
“Thank God for me,” added Eby.
I listened to Eby’s speech at distance while on vacation in the UK. It struck me that the three stories he told were more flattering to Horgan than to Eby.
Eby, the upstart who challenged the boss, the partisan who’d purge the public service, the electoral reform geek who overthought the referendum.
Horgan, the leader with his ego in check, who trusted the professionals to do their jobs, who delegated to his ministers, who shared power and worked with others.
Eby chose to tell those stories. If he’s learned the lessons he preached in the tribute to Horgan, he’ll be a better premier in his second term than he was in the first.