The loss of John Horgan this week has brought back many memories of my stint working for him, just before he became premier. People are remembering the premier who seemed made for the job – he cared about everyday people and spoke from the heart. My tour of duty was served before British Columbians came to know and love him.
In 2014 I heard Horgan speak in New Westminster, as an opposition MLA in the running to be BC NDP leader. It was off the cuff, about BC’s energy future, jobs, and the economy. Some who heard the speech were looking for big-picture themes and polish, and they weren’t convinced. But I was sold. I and others saw his ability to discuss complex issues without talking over people’s heads. Sure, he only talked about BC Hydro, dams, and energy policy but his warmth and affection for everyday people came through.
I had the hubris to ask for the job of John’s communications director that summer. Despite John being a new leader who could talk to anyone, the party was still stalled in the polls and was not getting media coverage outside Victoria, and I figured I’d try to help.
After a pitch to then-chief of staff John Heaney, my job interview with John Horgan was held seated in an audience in Las Vegas, where we were both in town for a Steelworkers convention. It’s just like John that he had never been to Vegas, and he really didn’t like it. He was a very down-to-earth person who preferred staying on Vancouver Island, at home in Langford with Ellie and the boys. But if Vegas seems an odd place for an important conversation, with John it really wasn’t. He could talk to anyone, anywhere and get to what mattered. He shared his frustrations, and I shared my ideas, and we got on pretty well.
The assignment I was given by party leaders was to get Horgan out of Victoria and into Lower Mainland media, and develop the discipline and polish needed to be seen as a premier. Particularly, he needed to be able to deliver a prepared speech, to convey our message to people in a consistent way. The problem was, on his way walking up to a podium, John would recognize someone he knew, launch into an anecdote about them, and the prepared remarks would go out the window.
John Heaney, Suzanne Christiansen, Ravi Kahlon, Sheena McConnell, and I worked hard to get Horgan into the mainstream and make him a contender for premier against a slick BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark.
I was a New Westminster mom with three little kids driving a minivan. The first time we went to an event together, I was surprised to find out I was expected to drive. My family is not tidy, and I was aghast for him to see the state of the minivan. Only John could put someone at ease so quickly, telling me it made him feel right at home as a dad of two. It wasn’t the only time he drove in the minivan, once with my kids in their soccer gear picked up at Queen’s Park field.
Judy Darcy and I got Horgan to Queen’s Park Arena more than once, where he loved to tease Salmonbellie lacrosse fans about his Victoria Shamrocks. New West lacrosse fans may recall that he caused a bit of a stir doing the ceremonial faceoff wearing a Salmonbellies jersey, only to pull it off and reveal the green and white underneath.
In the office, I tackled my assignments and I soon learned that the one thing John Horgan feared the most was looking like a phony. He rankled at written speeches. Press conferences were unpredictable. And pointed questions could make him react with too much heat.
The thing was, he had been tagged by Victoria media as angry and aggressive, which hurt his feelings. John was a complex guy and he did have strong emotions, but he cared deeply about people. His father died when he was 18 months old, and times had been very tough for his mother and siblings. He’d become the man of the household by seven years old when all his older siblings had moved on. He did feel strongly about protecting people, and injustice and neglect did make him angry. And he was frustrated that the Victoria media followed Christy Clark around without vigorous critique. When our stories weren’t covered and we didn’t see movement in the polls, he could get very low.
David Eby said, “If you hadn’t been yelled at by John Horgan, you hadn’t truly worked with him.” I worked with John Horgan, and we didn’t always see eye to eye. He was incredibly smart and would grasp a briefing note almost instantly. He demanded progress from his team, and he got frustrated when the strategy didn’t deliver. In fact, more than once he tried to get out of the job. He was often worried that someone else could be doing it better.
We all worked hard, but raising our standing in the polls was slow. Intrigues and outrages in the Legislature fired up our team but did not move working families in places like Surrey. It took time to drive a contrast between Christy Clark, with her carefully staged photo ops, and an authentic and smart John Horgan.
Things did shift when he got out of Victoria and hit the road, often with Ravi Kahlon, talking about health care and the cost of living. People saw the magic when John sat down at coffee tables to listen and talk.
We found a sweet spot on speeches with bullet points, so he could use his own words. And he even practised with a teleprompter. It took a lot of practice to get him to see that you can be authentic, and still disciplined. The trick was, he was probably smarter than any of us and his personality needed to come through in his own words.
A key event we were building to was the BC NDP convention in the fall of 2015. We went into that convention implementing a strategic framework. We had tidied him up despite his objections. And he delivered his leader’s address to the convention – the prepared text we had honed together – using a teleprompter. He knocked it out of the park, and I figured the job I’d signed up for was done.
Earlier that week, I’d told him I would be moving on from the role. Although we had made a lot of headway, I couldn’t justify the job demands on my young children and I knew the election ahead required more than I could give. Maybe it was from filling that early role with his mom, but one thing John could not abide was to see a woman cry. I believed in what John Horgan was going to do for B.C., and it was hard to tell him I was leaving.
Another New Westie, Marie Della Mattia, took the job next. She powered through his defences to allow the whole province to truly see the leader we knew. The rest is B.C. history – how a really smart guy with a gift for connecting with everyday people became a beloved premier.
As premier, he came to New Westminster to read to a class at Fraser River Middle School, and didn’t miss the chance to make fun of the Salmonbellies. He charmed our school board, staff, and the kids. John Horgan loved people, and they loved him back. Flags are flying at half-mast today at schools here in New Westminster and across the province, and I think John would be really chuffed by that. I know he left us far, far too soon.
Maya Russell is the board chair for School District 40 in New Westminster.
