Cabinet formation a matter of regional and ideological diversity for new B.C. Conservative government

Premier-designate Lorne Doerkson will be meeting with his new caucus in the coming weeks as he tries to strike the right balance when it comes to forming his first cabinet as the new leader of B.C.

With 63 MLAs elected or leading as Elections B.C. readies for the final ballot count, Doerkson will have a difficult task keeping everyone in his party happy and may have to leave some capable MLAs in lesser roles in order to ensure every region is represented at the decision-making table.

Already, rumblings are floating around about a smaller team than the 23-person cabinet that outgoing NDP Premier David Eby appointed following the 2024 election. When the four ministers of state and 13 parliamentary secretaries were taken into consideration, 40 out of the 47 NDP MLAs had been given policy portfolios.

It will be interesting to see whether Doerkson tries to do something similar, but a much larger team makes that more challenging.

Andrew Reeve, former B.C. United press secretary, said there are some MLAs that are obviously in consideration for a specific cabinet portfolio given their background and skill sets.

“One of the important considerations that any leader has to make when they’re assembling a cabinet is they have to make sure that you’ve got people that are qualified to do the roles first and foremost,” said Reeve.

“But you also have to ensure that there’s proper regional representation. If you’ve got a region of the province that doesn’t have a sitting cabinet minister, that region can feel ignored.”

Reeve said he expects Delta South MLA Ian Paton, a farmer and longtime agriculture critic, to be given the agriculture portfolio and Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar to be placed in finance given his long background as the critic on that file for both B.C. United and the B.C. Conservatives.

Some newcomers are also tailor-made for specific roles, he said, including Penticton-Summerland MLA Tracy St. Claire, executive director of the South Okanagan Similkameen Division of Family Practice, who Reeve sees as a potential health minister.

Every premier has a different way of going about selecting their cabinet.

Geoff Meggs, former chief of staff to the late NDP Premier John Horgan, said Horgan’s process was to put up a whiteboard and move photographs of his possible cabinet ministers around until he was happy that they all fit into one group that was a reflection of their skill sets but also of the diversity and different regions of the province.

“This was an extremely time-consuming part of the process for Horgan. And each time he did a cabinet shuffle, he worried over it,” said Meggs. “On both occasions, he asked for a completely private room where he could put up pictures of cabinet members and positions, and he would refine the cabinet duties to some extent to align with people’s skills and vice versa.”

Internally, within the Tories, there are continuing discussions about whether any of controversial ex-leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s supporters will be given roles.