Vaughn Palmer: John Horgan didn't want to be NDP leader and hated Opposition work. But once in power, he become B.C.'s widely popular 'Premier Dad'

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VICTORIA — Though John Horgan would become one of the most-successful and well-regarded B.C. premiers, initially he had strong doubts about whether he even wanted to take on the NDP leadership.

It was the fall of 2013. The New Democrats had surprised themselves by losing a provincial election they were expected to win by pollsters and pundits alike. Party Leader Adrian Dix took the fall and stepped down.

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Many eyes turned to Horgan, a master of complex issues like energy and a formidable debater in the seething cauldron of the B.C. legislature.

Horgan dipped his toe in the leadership waters, then pulled it back. He saw only “difficulty, acrimony and divisiveness” in leading the New Democrats in those days of internal recrimination.

Eventually Horgan was persuaded to go for it and, in the spring of 2014, he won by acclamation.

But it was not long before he began to have second thoughts. The New Democrats were a fractious bunch after more than a decade in Opposition. Nor did the job of relentless Opposition suit Horgan’s temperament.

Too often he came across as “angry John,” he admitted to journalists Rob Shaw and Richard Zussman in a Matter of Confidence, their richly detailed history of how Horgan became premier.

Horgan passed the word in NDP circles that he was willing to make way for........

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