On a turbulent day in B.C. politics, the government's Executive Council "decided to suspend" the 15 percent tax cut that Premier Gordon Campbell had announced on October 27. But that was only part of what happened.

A news release issued by the Office of the Premier quoted Gordon Campbell as saying:

"In order to ensure the Executive Council has maximum flexibility to set government's economic and fiscal agenda, Cabinet has decided to suspend the planned tax reduction. The Cabinet has decided that during this period of transition it is important that decisions are not made that would unnecessarily limit Executive Council's ability to set priorities and implement their agenda for government."

The release said the 15 percent reduction would have applied to the first $72,000 of personal income and was subject to legislative approval. As originally announced, the tax cut would have gone into effect on January 1, 2011.

Meanwhile, B.C. politics was rocked today by the firing of Energy Minister Bill Bennett and his long, angry press conference. In the Twitterverse, bloggers and journalists alike were expressing surprise at the events of the day.

Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.