There is growing evidence today that the office of B.C.'s Solicitor-General is cursed. And along with it signs that the often wacky and bizarre antics that marked politics in this province for so many years are making a comeback.
Kash Heed resigned as B.C. solicitor-general on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after being reinstated in the job. Mr. Heed had to step down on April 9 while the RCMP investigated alleged Elections Act violations during last year's provincial campaign.
Mr. Heed's two resignations follow the forced departure from the position by John van Dongen in April, 2009, after it was revealed he had lost his driver's licence because of speeding violations. A year before that, John Les had to step down as the province's top cop while police investigated his alleged involvement in questionable land dealings in his riding of Chilliwack. That probe continues.
But Mr. Heed's latest resignation is easily the most bizarre and perhaps the most troubling, too. There are now legitimate questions about those making decisions at the highest levels of B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell's government.
Mr. Heed first stepped down because of a police investigation into the origins of anti-NDP pamphlets distributed by his campaign in the last election. The pamphlets violated Elections B.C. laws because they did not include information about who authorized them.
On Monday, a special prosecutor appointed to the case announced charges would be laid against three men associated with Mr. Heed's campaign in connection with the pamphlets, but that the candidate was cleared of wrongdoing.
But an hour after Tuesday's announcement that Mr. Heed would be returning to cabinet, it was revealed that the special prosecutor in the case, Terrence Robertson, was stepping aside because his law firm had donated $1,000 to Mr. Heed's campaign in the last election. And that he knew this when he assumed the special prosecutor's role.
A few hours after this stunning revelation, Mr. Heed was officially sworn back into office. After thinking about the matter overnight, or having some thinking done for him, Mr. Heed showed up at the legislature on Wednesday to announce he was stepping down - again.
Now, it defies belief that the problem Mr. Robertson planned to make public on Tuesday afternoon hadn't reached anyone in government by the time it decided to announce Mr. Heed's return to the cabinet table. I mean, Mr. Robertson made his admission an hour after the news release that Mr. Heed had been exonerated and was being returned to his old position.
Come on: No one in the Attorney-General's Ministry or the criminal justice branch was tipped to what Mr. Robertson was about to tell the world? And this news didn't make it to the Premier's office before it was announced Mr. Heed would be reinstated?
But even if no one was aware, why, after learning about Mr. Robertson's conflict, with all the attendant questions it left hanging over the Heed investigation, did the government go ahead and officially swear him into office hours afterwards? Who in power, most notably the Premier himself, could have thought this was the right thing to do?
Would anyone have thought less of the government if it had issued a statement saying that Mr. Heed's return to cabinet was going to be delayed until it had time to consider the impact of Mr. Robertson's unexpected announcement? Not at all.
Now, of course, there are legitimate questions about what Mr. Robertson's stunning revelation means to the investigation that cleared Mr. Heed and recommended charges against the others. A new special prosecutor is being appointed and I don't see how that person can do anything but order a completely new inquiry, which means throwing out the charges that have been laid.
There seems to be no choice. Those charges stem from an investigation that is now clearly tainted.
This is all, of course, more bad news for Mr. Campbell, who is in the throes of perhaps his most challenging period since assuming office in 2001. His and his party's popularity are at all-time lows, thanks, in part, to his decision to break a campaign promise not to harmonize the provincial sales tax with the federal goods and services tax.
Leading the fight against the harmonized sales tax is former premier Bill Vander Zalm, who was forced to resign his office in 1991 over dealings that involved the fantasy theme park he owned, and on the grounds of which stood a faux castle that he lived in. (See return to zany world of B.C. politics.)
Mr. Campbell has breathing room before the May, 2013, election. But his handling of the Kash Heed affair is another sign of a government increasingly giving the public reason to think it's time for a change.