Premier John Horgan leaves his office after a press conference at the legislature in Victoria on Oct. 20.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
John Horgan is in a reflective mood as his days as B.C. Premier wind down.
He’ll be chauffeured around for a few more weeks by an RCMP detail and then, horrors, he’ll have to navigate the mean streets of British Columbia in his car just like everyone else.
“Yes, I still remember how to drive,” he assures.
Although he has tendered his resignation, he still officially remains Premier until his successor, David Eby, is sworn in on Nov. 18. These last days are bittersweet, he admits, but the closer he gets to that final day he’s finding it more “sweet than bitter.”
In what he says will be his last interview as Premier, Mr. Horgan told The Globe and Mail it was the honour of his life to serve the province he loves. He’ll go down as one of the most popular premiers in B.C. history, something he attributes to the perspective he brought to his five years on the job.
“I had a lot of things in my favour,” he says. “I lived in the same tiny house in the same tiny little neighbourhood in the same tiny little town called Langford for 30 years with my wife who I love … I’ve had a blessed life and I’ve tried to channel that when I talk to people. I know how fortunate I’ve been.”
With one foot out the door, and the other close behind, he can speak with a candour one does not expect from someone who holds the office he does. He can now admit, for instance, that governments often have no hope of solving the big problems of the day – homelessness, high costs of housing, a crisis in health care – but can only chip away at them.
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He says government can set targets, but the fact is “the public doesn’t care about your 10-point plan or your 50-point plan,” they want their issues addressed now. “They want to know when they go to emergency there is going to be someone there to solve their problems, whatever they might be – period,” he says. But most of the big problems the province faces don’t have easy, magical solutions, otherwise they’d be fixed by now.
But politicians can’t always truly be honest for fear of the backlash it might incite. Because he’s leaving, however, Mr. Horgan can say now that homelessness, the high cost of housing and the health-care emergency are likely to remain big issues for years. But it’s the truth.
He agrees it is one of the great paradoxes of public life: People say they want politicians to speak the truth, yet often assail them when they do. So, they offer up bromides and platitudes instead.
Former prime minister Kim Campbell was absolutely right when she famously said elections were not the time to discuss serious issues and yet she was excoriated for it, Mr. Horgan says.
When I ask him about the rise of the populist in Canada – federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in Ottawa, Premier Danielle Smith in Alberta, as examples – he says he would have also characterized himself as a populist. But he says he is a populist who is more of a centrist – he throws Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Quebec Premier Francois Legault into that category as well – while others prefer to focus on a more segmented band of voters.
He shakes his head over what he is hearing from Ms. Smith in Alberta. She recently criticized Alberta Health Services for its handling of COVID-19, saying the agency failed the province. She promised to have a more hands-on role in public health matters in the future, which should alarm everyone in the province.
Yet, it is a promise that makes her hard base of supporters in rural Alberta very happy.
“That’s pandering,” Mr. Horgan says. “There is a difference between populism and pandering and that’s exactly what she is doing right there and that’s what Mr. Poilievre did by joining the horn honkers in Ottawa. That’s not mainstream Canada under any circumstances.”
While saying he doesn’t want to pick a fight with Ms. Smith as he heads out the door, he says “it’s demonstrably false to suggest the health-care authorities in Alberta let Albertans down [during the pandemic]. It’s quite the opposite in fact.”
Politics is much different today than it was 10 years ago, he admits. And not for the better. Social media and platforms such as Twitter have changed everything. Rage stirred up by often anonymous accounts can cause real damage.
“You find yourself having to change your position on something because you’re trending,” he says. “And you’re trending because a whole bunch of people, some who may not even live where you live, are saying you’re an idiot. It makes it really difficult to gauge the mood of the public on things.”
He says there is more anger in the public square today, but only among a certain segment of those in it. Most people, he says, are just trying to get on with their lives. They’re not paying attention to Twitter and TikTok. They are trying to feed their families.
He is leaving a job he has absolutely loved, he says, one that allowed him to be the person he truly is. When he was opposition leader, having to stamp his feet, and pound his desk, and demand black-and-white answers to problems he knew were clouded with grey, he felt like an imposter. Five years ago, he was able to shed the facade.
When asked what the secret was to his enduring popularity, he thought for a second.
“I think people looked at me and saw a pretty normal guy they could relate to. The job didn’t change me.”