B.C. Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom sat down in his legislature office late Wednesday night with two documents in front of him: a copy of the 500-page-long Yale First Nations Treaty and his cabinet oath of office.
With a vote on the treaty scheduled for Thursday afternoon, he was weighing whether to quit cabinet - for a second time - or maintain cabinet solidarity and vote for legislation he opposes.
"I sat in my office, went through the treaty again, read my oath of office, sat there and put a great deal of thought into it," he said in an interview shortly after voting for the treaty, which provides cash, land and fishing rights for the 145-member band by the Fraser Canyon.
Mr. Lekstrom spent 10 months as an Independent MLA after quitting the cabinet last June in the midst of a public backlash over his government's introduction of the harmonized sales tax. It was a sharp blow to his fellow B.C. Liberal MLAs, some of them facing recall campaigns because they would not side with their constituents as he had.
By the end of the year, the growing furor over the HST forced then-premier Gordon Campbell out of office. New Premier Christy Clark brought Mr. Lekstrom back into caucus and cabinet in April, after he assured his colleagues he was back on the B.C. Liberal team and would play by the rules. He was even assigned to help sell British Columbians on the merits of the tax, which has since been reshaped.
On Wednesday, however, he opened the door to breaking with his pack again. He had opposed other treaties brought before the legislature - as a backbencher not bound by the rules of cabinet solidarity - arguing they entrench rights for first nations that are not accorded to other British Columbians.
Asked by reporters whether he would oppose the Yale treaty for the same reasons, he said he was troubled by the treaty, but hedged, saying he was still reading the fine print to decide if the terms were the same.
An arrangement was made to allow him to skip the vote - he had important meetings in Vancouver, and the caucus whip granted him official leave.
But shortly after leave was granted, Ms. Clark's chief of staff, Mike McDonald, received an angry e-mail from some members of the B.C. Liberal caucus arguing he should be forced to make a decision. It was shaping up as the first test of how Ms. Clark will handle caucus discipline.
They were assured he would be in the House when the vote was called.
On Thursday, Mr. Lekstrom said he never intended to evade the issue.
"I've never sidestepped a decision or a vote in my life and I wouldn't start now," he said. "I felt that this issue was large enough that for me not to be here as a member of cabinet would certainly raise more questions that it needed to, so I actually adjusted the meetings I had … so I was here for the vote."
Mr. Lekstrom said he still doesn't accept that the Yale treaty is a good thing, but after one stretch in the political wilderness, he decided staying in cabinet was more important. "I think I can better serve the people of B.C. and my constituents, if I am going to stay in cabinet, if I am going to stay in government by making the decision I have made here."
Justine Hunter