As we reported yesterday, Victoria MP David Anderson has been kicked out of cabinet. Now insiders are saying it will be a matter of months before Mr. Anderson resigns his seat to pick a plum from the patronage tree. And, according to the federal Liberal rumour mill, yet another name has been added to the list of would-be successors: professional board member Linda Petch.

Ms. Petch, who also runs a management consulting firm, is a member of the Victoria International Airport Authority and Vancouver Island Health Authority, the Health Employers' Association of British Columbia and the British Columbia Addictions Foundation boards of directors. She and her husband Howard, the former president of the University of Victoria, were close friends with the ex-cabinet minister and his wife Sandra and are said to have been instrumental in advancing the Anderson couple's academic teaching careers during the early nineties. But recently, it looks like that relationship has deteriorated with Ms. Petch publicly and privately criticizing Mr. Anderson.