on the other side of the floor is John
Horgan—he's the energy guy, he's the
expert," says Gary Mason, The Globe
and Mail's Vancouver-based colum-
nist. "Clark needed somebody able to
go toe-to-toe with Horgan on some of
these big energy questions.
"Bill Bennett will always have a
degree of maverick in him—that's
just his nature," adds Mason, "but I
don't think he's been as outspoken
as he has been in the past. I think
he understands that he was given a
fairly significant second chance by
Clark to get back into cabinet and to
play a senior role. Consequently, he's
become one of Clark's most trusted
cabinet ministers."
Former cabinet colleague George
Abbott agrees that there's been a
maturation in Bennett, a softening of
his rebel edge. "I think he was pretty
deft in his management of the Mount
Polley issue, which was—and is—a dif-
ficult one, given his position. I think
there's been a bit of a rebalancing of
the persona with him back in cabinet.
Now he's moving into a kind of senior
statesman role. He's a little more cau-
tious in his choice of words. I think it's
working well for him."
Bennett acknowledges that he's
had to modify his style since rejoin-
ing the cabinet. "As a politician, you
say to yourself: I want to be honest, I
really want to say what I think—peo-
ple want genuine, they want real. But
I'm tired of having the shit kicked out
of me. I'm tired of being made to feel
like I'm some sort of fucking weirdo
in politics.
"If I'm going to achieve the goals
that I have for myself as an elected
official, I have to adapt. I don't want to
sacrifice who I am, but I have to adapt
to the extent that allows me to be suc-
cessful. Christy Clark knew—and we
had some discussions early on—that
the experience that I went through
with Gordon Campbell had been
traumatic. It was like electroshock. I
just would never allow myself or my
family to go through that again.
"I think I'm still open and honest,"
says Bennett, dropping me off at my
hotel on the Strip before heading to a
fundraising dinner. "I'm just a hell of
a lot more careful."
■
Tourism Victoria changed the
perceptions people had about Victoria
and drove $54 million of economic
impact to the region. And they won the
BCAMA Marketer of the Year.
54 BCBusiness November 2014
