Lekstrom rejoins B.C. Liberal caucus

One dissident Liberal MLA was invited back into the fold, but the other remained on the outside Wednesday as Christy Clark used her first caucus meeting as premier designate to cement unity.

A beaming MLA Blair Lekstrom appeared beside Clark in front of reporters only an hour after the meeting started.

Theformer energy minister quit his cabinet post and resigned from the caucus last June, saying he was heeding the wishes of his constituents who were angry over the way the Liberals introduced the HST.

"I'm proud to be part of Christy's team," Lekstrom said.

"She [Clark] made a commitment that she's going to be engaging of the public, and this is obviously a very important thing for me, as it is for the colleagues that I work with."

Clark won the Liberal leadership last weekend after promising change, and Lekstrom said today he wanted back into caucus to help out.

After Premier Gordon Campbell was pushed out last fall as a result of the HST debacle, Lekstrom said the new leader would have to come up with some new ideas.

Clark has them, said Lekstrom, noting mounting a campaign in favour of the HST in an early referendum will be an important priority.

"I've always said ... I think the entire country will be on the HST within another 10 to 15 years. It does have some benefits for us. The issue that I have is not the HST but the manner in which we went about it."

No decision on Bill Bennett

However, no decision has been made about whether Bill Bennett will be allowed to return to the fold.

Bennett did not attend Wednesday's meeting and Ron Cantelon, the caucus chair, said the question of Bennett's return wasn't on the day's agenda.

Bennett was energy minister when he began to publicly criticize Premier Gordon Campbell.

After Campbell resigned last fall, Bennett delivered an astonishing public tirade against the premier. He was then kicked out of caucus.

Lekstrom's return to caucus was important as Clark works to build a team out of a group of people who have thrown their support behind her since her win last Saturday, even though all but one supported other candidates during the race.

During the race, Clark portrayed herself as the change candidate, an outsider who was not tainted by the HST firestorm. Her three opponents were cabinet ministers when the combined tax was introduced.

On Wednesday, however, Clark noted her long ties with many in caucus, including one member she has worked with since 1991.

"It's a big family and for me, it's very, very nice to be back."

Clark was first elected as a Liberal opposition MLA in 1996 and served as deputy premier after the party won a landslide victory in 2001. She left politics in 2004 to spend more time with her young son.

Among her first priorities is winning a seat in the legislature and forming a cabinet.

HST referendum

Meanwhile, her promise to move up the referendum on the HST could be the biggest immediate challenge.

Elections BC has said it will be difficult to move the HST referendum from the planned September date to June. All the leadership candidates endorsed moving the referendum to June.

"Well, we haven't had a talk in caucus and cabinet [about that] yet," Clark said.

"We're working through the details. There are a lot of things to think about with respect to the date of the HST referendum. I do want to move it up, though. We have to deal with it. There's an appetite for British Columbians to deal with it.

"So if we can move up the date...we are absolutely going to deal with it."