John Horgan and Shirley Bond often butted heads in the Legislature.
That’s just the nature of politics.
Bond, who served as interim leader of the BC Liberals from November 2020-May 2022, got into dozens of heated arguments with Horgan and his NDP government during his time as premier.
But it wasn’t always like that and it was those moments of mutual respect and the kindness Horgan showed behind the scenes that form Bond’s lasting memories of BC’s “working man’s premier.”
Horgan died of cancer Tuesday morning at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria. He was 65.
“John Horgan will be missed and he is certainly appreciated for the work that he did, we had fierce question period exchanges but I will always be grateful for the respect that he showed to me, particularly during my time as leader of the opposition,” said Bond, who took over when Andrew Wilkinson stepped down as Liberal leader.
“He treated me with respect. He understood the challenges of the role I was facing, and I am very grateful for the friendship I had with John Horgan. He was a person that people related to and was often referred to as a guy you could sit down and have a beer with. He was approachable and he certainly had a passion for British Columbia, and a deep love for Star Trek. If John were here today I know what he’d say, ‘Live long and prosper.’”
Bond expressed her heartfelt condolences to Horgan’s wife Ellie and their two sons. She remembers the Horgans and the outpouring of compassion they expressed to Bond at the time she lost her husband Bill to a heart attack and he continued to show genuine interest in how Bond and her family were dealing with their grief.
She fondly recalls seeing Horgan at the opposite end of the Q Centre in Victoria where the Prince George Spruce Kings were playing the Victoria Grizzlies in the Coastal Conference final playoff series in April 2019. Horgan was cheering for the hometown Grizzlies and Bond was sporting her Spruce Kings jersey and got her wish when the Kings won Game 4 in overtime.
“Much to my happiness, the Spruce Kings swept John Horgan’s team and I had the opportunity to remind him of that in the Legislature,” said Bond. “It was a great moment for us to talk about our sports rivalry, not to mention our differences from a political perspective.
“We didn’t agree on much, but we certainly showed a love for the province of British Columbia. I know the toll that serving in the Legislature that he served as premier would take on his family. The loss will not only be felt by them but by our whole province.”
Horgan rose to power as premier in 2017 when the NDP formed an alliance with the Green Party to defeat Christy Clark’s Liberal government in a confidence motion and subsequently won the election.
Mike Morris, the now-retired three-term Prince George-Mackenzie MLA appointed by Clark as minister of public safety and solicitor general had policy differences that saw Horgan’s Irish disposition come out in him a few times, but enjoyed working with him, knowing they shared a common goal to make BC a better place for everybody to live.
“John was very credible, down-to-earth individual and I respected him highly in the house – he was quick to temper sometimes but I think that dissipated as he got into government and he became a true leader there,” said Morris.
“I liked him, I could talk to him individually outside the Legislature and we could carry on some great conversations. He was an asset for the NDP and an asset for Canada.”
Horgan’s leadership abilities were obvious in how he carried himself in provincial debates as well as outside the province, and that led to his selection in 2023 as Canada’s ambassador to Germany less than a year after he stepped down as premier in November 2022. Horgan and his wife were living in Berlin until he received his end-of-life diagnosis.
Morris and Horgan shared a common bond in their separate battles with bladder cancer.
“He worked with the federal government as much as he could and he pushed issues and worked with the premiers right across the country on a routine basis and he was a leader when we saw the provincial leaders get together territorial/provincial meetings,” said Morris.
"He was noted and certainly will be sorely missed. He was a remarkable leader, able to keep all the various factions of his caucus under control and present a common front when they were in the Legislature.”
