Federal Liberals in this province have a new game to play when they're not slitting each other's throats. It's called "let's guess who British Columbia's next political minister will be." David Anderson was the most recent officeholder. But the Victoria MP went off the reservation during the election, running against his party to win. And that makes it unlikely Prime Minister Paul Martin will reappoint him.

Former Canfor Corp. chief executive officer David Emerson's name has been batted around as a replacement. But some think the greenhorn Vancouver-Kingsway MP needs a bit more political seasoning before that happens.

As evidence, they point to Mr. Emerson's mid-campaign proposal to increase language training so that immigrants can "lose their accents." And besides, appointing a provincial Liberal insider as the Grit's political minister in British Columbia might make it more difficult to win-over Gordon Campbell-haters during the next election.

Which means the race to fill that job is between Vancouver Quadra MP Stephen Owen and Vancouver-South MP Ujjal Dosanjh. Operatives were impressed by Mr. Dosanjh's performance during the election (read: he stayed on message). And insiders say he has a good relationship with the party's principle British Columbia organizer Mark Marissen.

However, the Campbell Liberals would go apoplectic if a former New Democrat premier became the political minister for this province. So it's likely Mr. Owen will be appointed to that position instead.