Bob Mackin
As swan song speeches in the British Columbia Legislature go, Gordon Hogg’s has to go down as one of the more memorable.
The Surrey-White Rock BC Liberal is not running in the May 9 provincial election after a five-term career that included four undersecretary portfolios. He was the first minister of children and family development under Premier Gordon Campbell from June 2001 to January 2004. His successor in the most-mismanaged part of the B.C. government? Future premier Christy Clark.
Hogg has taken to waxing philosophical in his statements to the Legislature. Near the end of this final installment, on March 15, he thanked friends, family, constituents and others.
“Do I have time to mention the rest of the people I wanted to mention?” he said.
I will quickly try and find where I wrote them. I’ll hum for you a little bit. I’m a really good…. I’ve got a rap song that’s on YouTube, if you’d like to hear a couple bits of that.
He’s so fly, rapping with your bling.
He’s so fly, rapping when you sing.
My homies and my peeps are happy in the hood.
My homies and my peeps are doing what they should.
Find out what you’ve got. Give it up. Take it home.
Gee, where did all those papers go?
Watch the clip below.
Clark, who became premier in 2011, was not in the Legislature for the last Wednesday sitting before the election, so she did not witness “hip hop Hogg” in person. Her excuse was a photo op at the B.C. Tech Summit in Vancouver. Was the real reason rooted in superstition, to avoid her caucus mates on the Ides of March?
Hogg, a former 10-year White Rock mayor, earned his doctorate in criminology from Simon Fraser University last year and is an adjunct professor there. According to numbers crunched by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, he will earn $82,607 in his first year as a pensioner. By the time he is 80, he will have been paid $805,800.
Which would buy a lot of bling.
