Comment: FOI reform continues to stain John Horgan’s legacy |
A commentary by a longtime journalist and author of Fallen Behind, a book on world freedom of information laws.
A year ago, John Horgan, the New Democratic Party premier of British Columbia, passed away. At his state funeral last December, with 3,000 attendees and broadcast live for three hours, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised Horgan’s “profound legacy.”
Mayors and premiers hailed him as “a great Canadian” who “dedicated his life to B.C.” Media figures and even foes spoke of “a great man,” and “the rare politician changed for the better by power” and “a guy who looked out for everyone as best he could.”
Notably, his demise was announced one week after Donald Trump’s re-election as U.S. president. Horgan seemed as anti-Trumpian as can be, so perhaps progressives, desperate for an antidote, overcompensated by suspending criticism.
I had much respected his deficit reductions, and some of his actions in aid of democracy, such as banning union and corporate donations. Yet his legacy is a bit more ethically complex than it might at first appear.
On October 18, 2021, Horgan dropped a bombshell, one that I recall vividly. As a friend wrote me that day: “The NDP are killing FOI. Check the news.”
I discovered his just-introduced Bill 22,........