Story behind closest election in BC history is now a best-selling book

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – They say there’s never a dull moment in BC politics. That was especially true in the weeks between the May election and the fall of the Christy Clark government seven weeks later. Now a new book spells it all out from start to finish.

A Matter of Confidence, The Inside Story of the Political Battle for BC is the work of legislative reporters Rob Shaw and Richard Zussman. Zussman says one of the reasons they wrote it is because there aren’t a lot of books being written about BC politics these days. “So I started canvassing around the Press Gallery here and I said, ‘Somebody has to write a book about Gordon Campbell and about that legacy.’ And nobody really seemed interested and I forgot about it,” he explains.

Then came what Zussman calls the most exciting time in the history BC politics, the transfer of power from Christy Clark to John Horgan. “I realized, very soon after the confidence vote and John Horgan was asked to be Premier-designate, somebody needs to write this book,” he recalls. “That’s where it came from.”

The book was written in just a matter of weeks. But the hardest part wasn’t getting people to go on the record, former Premier Gordon Campbell being the notable exception, it was the authors working around their own busy schedules. “Both of us have young kids and the kids would go to sleep and we’d talk around 7:45 and we’d lay out the game plan for sort of the next four hours when we’d both write and work on the book,” he explains.

Zussman is the first to admit this book won’t be the last word on the Clark years, “but this book outlines really the details, the behind-the-scenes stuff on, you know, who she was and how she governed and ultimately, how she fell,” he says. “It’s not an analysis or the definitive piece on how was Christy Clark as a Premier. I challenge someone else to write that book.”

Almost as compelling as the story contained within the book is the story around its creation. Zussman was dismissed from the CBC for conflict of interest, a move that sparked widespread criticism, even from Premier Horgan himself. The case itself is now in arbitration, but Zussman isn’t looking back. “I’m so thrilled about being part of the team at Global BC and they have been so good to me and so supportive and the public has been so incredibly supportive.”

A Matter of Confidence can be found wherever books are sold. “It’s exciting now to actually be able to hold the book in our hands and know that people are being able to read it and enjoy it.”

The Vancouver launch of the book is set for Wednesday April 4th at SFU’s Harbour Centre campus.