Article content continued

Horgan has up to six months to call a byelection in her riding.

The Liberal caucus selected Rich Coleman, longtime MLA for Langley and key Clark deputy during her six-and-a-half years as premier, as its interim leader.

The Liberals will be without a permanent leader for anywhere from three months to a year while it goes through a leadership contest to replace Clark, said Coleman, who spoke to the media outside the party’s Penticton caucus meeting.

Coleman said he’s informed the Liberal caucus he has no initial intention to run for the permanent job.

In her letter to the party, Clark said: “I love our party and our province with all my heart,” and expressed pride that “together, we have achieved so much” including the Liberal’s 2013 comeback election victory and positioning B.C. as a leading economy in Canada.

“I am certain that British Columbia’s best days, and our party’s are still ahead of us,” Clark wrote in the statement, where she also said she is “excited to see the renewed engagement that will strengthen and energize our party as we choose the next leader.”

That leadership race will be touched off by a meeting of the B.C. Liberal party executive, which must be called within 28 days, according to a letter to members issued Friday by party president Sharon White.

Before being defeated in a confidence motion June 29, Clark said she intended to stay on to take “whatever job voters give me and the House gives me.”

After the confidence vote, which resulted in Lt. Governor Judith Guichon asking Horgan, with his Green-party-backed supply agreement, to govern, Clark said she would stay on as long as she had the support of her opposition caucus.