Vaughn Palmer: The former Liberal cabinet minister had been named to the commission in 2015. Then-premier Christy Clark suddenly vetoed him
VICTORIA — There was no overlooking the satisfaction in the NDP government’s recent announcement that former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister George Abbott had been appointed provincial representative on the treaty commission.
“George Abbott is a seasoned diplomat who has significant experience of working with First Nations, local governments, labour and business,” the minister of Indigenous relations and reconciliation, Christine Boyle, said in a news release last month.
She cited Abbott’s 17 years as an MLA and 12 years as a cabinet minister in the past B.C. Liberal governments.
“Abbott led portfolios in Indigenous relations, sustainable resource management, health and education,” she continued. “During his role as minister of Aboriginal relations and reconciliation, Abbott regularly engaged in the work of the treaty commission.”
The New Democrats left it to observers with long memories to recall an unhappy detail from Abbott’s relationship with the federal-provincial-Indigenous commission overseeing the treaty process.
Ten years ago, he’d been on the verge of taking a seat on the treaty commission only to have then Liberal premier Christy Clark pull out the rug from under him.
The date was March 18, 2015.
Abbott, who’d retired from the legislature in 2013, was scheduled to take over at the end of the month as chief commissioner from retiring Sophie Pierre. Abbott was at the commission offices, being briefed on its work.
Then he got an unexpected call from the provincial government. The B.C. Liberals were withdrawing their support for his appointment.
The federal government had tacitly approved of Abbott. The First Nations Summit was on side as well. Both were caught off guard.
Pierre, the departing chief commissioner, blasted the province for reneging on an appointment that had been vetted by the treaty partners over several months.
“To pull this away at the 11th hour questions the commitment of B.C. to the treaty process,” she said. “This is not the way to effect reconciliation.”
Pierre paid tribute to Abbott’s “integrity, intelligence and extensive experience,” words that would echo down through the years to the news release the New Democrats put out last month.
Abbott was humiliated, shocked and bewildered all at once. The news was communicated to him by the then provincial minister of Aboriginal relations, John Rustad.
But when Abbott spoke to me the day after his ouster in 2015, he didn’t blame the minister. Rustad had recruited him for the position. He’d been clearly embarrassed at having to deliver the news that the offer was withdrawn.
Rather, Abbott guessed that the move was payback for his outspoken bid for the party leadership following the departure of Premier Gordon Campbell. He’d finished third to Christy Clark and Kevin Falcon.
Rustad, like other Liberal MLAs and ministers from the North and Interior, had backed Abbott, the longtime MLA for Shuswap. The campaign had left some “deep memories of real and perceived hurts,” Abbott speculated.
“Some knives came out in the cabinet room. … It is the only conclusion I can form.”
Rustad stuck to the government line. The cabinet had decided, at the last minute, to go in a different direction on the treaty process.
Clark denied she was settling scores from the leadership race.
“George is someone that I counted on for two years when he was a senior minister in my government,” she told reporters. “I have a great deal of respect for him.”
As for blindsiding him when he was about to take up his duties, “ultimately I need to take responsibility for that.” Clark conceded. “I do very much regret that the communication with George was done very, very badly.”
She didn’t regret it enough to restore him to the commission. She was still determined to speed up the slow-moving treaty process.
Clark would remain premier for another two years. Speeding up the treaty process was not on her list of accomplishments.
I spoke to Rustad recently about the Abbott appointment. The Conservative leader well remembered having to call his then friend in 2015 to say the cabinet no longer supported his appointment.
As for why Clark decided Abbott had to go, “I never did get an adequate explanation,” says Rustad.
Abbott was caught off guard earlier this year when he got the exploratory call from the New Democrats recruiting him for the provincial seat on the commission.
“I needed a moment to recover my jaw from the floor,” he told me. “But I didn’t hesitate to embrace the opportunity to contribute all that I can to reconciliation that has been far too slow in coming — for a variety of reasons with deep historical roots.”
He’s just finishing up a book explaining those deep historical roots. Unceded: Understanding B.C.’s Colonial Past and Why It Matters Now will be published later this year by Purich Books/UBC Press.
In heading back to the commission 10 years after the fact, Abbott jokes that he feels like Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, who came “unstuck in time.”
But he’s well qualified to serve on the commission, same as he was 10 years ago when Christy Clark sidelined him for no good reason.