British Columbia Premier John Horgan: Comfortable in power, but embarking on his second fight with cancer

The word on John Hor­gan used to be that he was too impa­tient and blus­tery to lead the left-lean­ing New Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty in the British Colum­bia Leg­isla­tive Assem­bly, and Hor­gan became leader as the par­ty was six­teen years in oppo­si­tion and despair­ing of its come-from-ahead defeat in the 2013 provin­cial election.

The pun­dits under­es­ti­mat­ed the one­time lacrosse play­er, who rep­re­sents a rid­ing (dis­trict) along the Strait of Juan de Fuca west of Victoria.

Hor­gan, six­ty-two, brought the NDP back to forty-one (of eighty-sev­en) seats in the 2017 elec­tion and forged a bare­bones gov­ern­ing alliance with three leg­is­la­tors from the Green Par­ty. The alliance made him premier.

Hor­gan effec­tive­ly gov­erned for three years before jet­ti­son­ing pow­er shar­ing with the Greens and call­ing a snap elec­tion in the fall of 2020.

The elec­tion gave New Democ­rats a major­i­ty in the Leg­is­la­ture and break­throughs in areas, e.g. Fras­er Valley/Langley and Rich­mond, long dom­i­nat­ed by the (not-very-lib­er­al) Lib­er­al Party.

The NDP’s record han­dling the coro­n­avirus, with dai­ly lay-it-out brief­in­gs by provin­cial health offi­cer Dr. Bon­nie Hen­ry and Health Min­is­ter Adri­an Dix, helped it to vic­to­ry. The Lib­er­als have lost ground in urban and sub­ur­ban regions of the province, and are now large­ly a par­ty of rur­al and inte­ri­or British Columbia.

The past week saw Hor­gan mark four years and 109 days in the premier’s office, a record for NDP premiers.

He is the lone par­ty leader who’s been able to twice take the New Democ­rats to pow­er, with the par­ty cap­tur­ing a record 47.7% of the vote in 2020.

But the best of times can be painful times.

As the anniver­sary arrived, Hor­gan informed the province – in a man­ner “char­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly direct” in words of Van­cou­ver Sun colum­nist Vaughn Palmer – that he was going under the knife to have a growth in his throat removed.

A day lat­er, a sec­ond direct mes­sage: “The pathol­o­gy con­firmed that the growth in my throat was can­cer­ous,” said Horgan.

“My prog­no­sis is good and I expect to make a full recov­ery. In the next cou­ple of weeks, I will need to start radi­a­tion treat­ment, which will con­clude toward the end of Decem­ber. I will con­tin­ue to par­tic­i­pate vir­tu­al­ly in brief­in­gs, cab­i­net and oth­er impor­tant meet­ings. If in-per­son events, min­is­ter Mike Farn­worth and oth­er cab­i­net min­is­ters may attend in my place.”

Insults fly across the floor of the B.C. Leg­is­la­ture dur­ing debate.

Hor­gan is known for pound­ing the Lib­er­als on their (many) mis­deeds while run­ning the province for six­teen years. Yet, across the spec­trum, Hogan’s ill­ness has pro­duced warm wish­es for recovery.

“We will be think­ing of him in the weeks and months ahead, and I cer­tain­ly look for­ward to a time when he will return, in good health, to the Leg­is­la­ture so we can return to the vig­or­ous debate that he and I usu­al­ly engage in,” inter­im Lib­er­al Par­ty leader Shirley Bond told a scrum of reporters in Victoria.

A promi­nent con­ser­v­a­tive in Cana­di­an pol­i­tics, Ontario Pre­mier John Ford, intoned: “John, you are a fight­er. We’re cheer­ing you on here in Ontario.”

Hor­gan sur­vived blad­der can­cer more than a decade ago, describ­ing the ini­tial diag­no­sis to the Globe and Mail as lie “get­ting hit by a big, huge base­ball bat.”

The New Democ­rats embrace con­flict­ing con­stituen­cies, e.g. envi­ron­men­tal­ists and tim­ber unions. Unlike America’s divid­ed Democ­rats, they have demon­strat­ed remark­able dis­ci­pline while gov­ern­ing. The par­ty has field­ed able Cab­i­net min­is­ters, such as Dix, who are respon­si­ble for pre­sent­ing their own bud­gets and defend­ing their depart­ments on the floor of the Legislature.

Even con­tro­ver­sial deci­sions, such as COVID-19 caused trav­el restric­tions with­in the province (now end­ed) have gen­er­at­ed lit­tle protest.

The Leg­isla­tive Assem­bly is cur­rent­ly meet­ing in Victoria.

With resump­tion of ser­vice on the M.V. Coho, you can sail over from Port Ange­les and watch a dis­ci­plined gov­ern­ment mov­ing ahead with its agenda.

As Hor­gan pre­pared for surgery, the B.C. gov­ern­ment announced major defer­rals of log­ging old-growth forests across the province. The reform of for­est pol­i­cy will involve exten­sive con­sul­ta­tions with Abo­rig­i­nal First Nations.

The gov­ern­ment is tabling con­sumer pro­tec­tion leg­is­la­tion aimed at cre­at­ing safe­guards for those pur­chas­ing new and resold hous­ing in B.C.’s ever-hot real estate mar­ket. Before “the Leg” goes home in Decem­ber, it is expect­ed to cre­ate buffer zones around schools and health care facil­i­ties to pre­vent harass­ment by anti-vac­cine protests.

“I look for­ward to being back in the Leg­is­la­ture and trav­el­ing in the new year,” Hor­gan said in his announce­ment.

The trav­el will like­ly take Hor­gan south to “the States” where Hor­gan and Wash­ing­ton State Jay Inslee are pro­mot­ing improved Amtrak ser­vice and pos­si­bly even ultra high-speed rail between B.C.‘s Van­cou­ver and Eugene, Oregon.

Wrote Palmer:

“He’s beat­en the odds before and has every rea­son to think he can do so again.”