It was the Kodak moment Christy Clark and her family of supporters had been working for their entire political lives.

Clark being sworn-in as premier at government house, her much-mentioned smile and fashionable, hound's-tooth jacket contrasting sharply with the serious suits and expressions being worn by her soon-to-be cabinet colleagues.

But, seven months into her administration, the premier -- whose Liberal leadership bid was supported by just one of those ministers -- doesn't have much to smile about.

Her government is now trailing the Opposition, according to the latest polling from Ipsos Corp., with Clark having a disapproval rating that's higher than her New Democratic Party competitor Adrian Dix.

So how did The Province's front page Vancouver Canucks "Jersey Girl" come to be at risk of losing the premiership to a man blacklisted by one of the same tabloid's columnists as a "dour Stalinist"?

How did Clark go from having won the Liberal leadership to leading a caucus that includes two members who, in the words of The Vancouver Sun's Vaughn Palmer, "launched a blunt attack on their own government" this week?

Well, to answer that question, you have to understand who Clark is as a leader and who she isn't -- something The Tyee spent four weeks researching, conducting background interviews with sources who've been part of or a close witness to Clark's ascent to power.

She has the makings of a populist… but isn't

Like the media, many of those sources described Clark as a populist -- a politician who supports or seeks to appeal to the concerns of the commons. But there's more to being a populist than that.

According to political scientists Daniele Albertazzi and Duncan McDonnell, the key feature of populists -- regardless of the position on the left-right spectrum -- is their fight to "reclaim the people's sovereignty from the professional political and administrative classes, as well as other elite 'enemies' who, through the sleight of hand of representative and deliberately arcane and complex politics, have stolen and perverted democracy."

But, since being sworn-in as premier, Clark has yet to substantially pit herself against anyone who can reasonably be considered a true elite.

For example, three days after the premier's swearing-in-ceremony, she announced the minimum wage would be increased from $8 to $10.25 by May 2012.

The province's business lobby blasted that decision, with British Columbia Chamber of Commerce president and chief executive officer John Winter describing the raise as "too much too fast" in an interview with capital city radio station CFAX 1070.

But the thawing of the province's ten-year minimum wage freeze was more a long-time coming than populist. After all, government and Opposition MLAs sitting on the legislature's finance committee had earlier recommended a minimum wage hike, along with all of Clark's competitors during the Liberal leadership race.

The government's recent decision to "advocate for television and radio access to the courts" is also illustrative of how Clark can appear populist but isn't upon closer inspection.

The reason: she's not advocating for that access to hold an elite -- such as judges, who annually earn $231,138 -- to account.

Instead, that access will at least initially be restricted to the Stanley Cup riot proceedings, with the premier explaining "those guys had no problem doing their crimes quite in public with all kinds of people taking pictures and doing videos all around them. So I think they should have no problem being tried in public either."

In other words, the premier wants to hold hockey hooligans to account -- individuals who, for the most part, have neither means nor influence and might not even vote.

Indeed, the only interests Clark has repeatedly positioned herself in opposition against are those that involve little political risk -- executives at Crown-owned corporations, as well as NDP members and "the same old elites they represented the last time that they were in government."

"We won't let them hide their love of their cronies in the union movement," she promised supporters during her campaign launch speech.

But it's unclear whether the commons believes NDP and union members have much influence over the province, let alone considering them an elite. After all, according to BC Stats, between 1997 and 2008, British Columbia's unionization rate declined from 37 to 31 per cent. And, since 2001, the NDP has been relegated to the impotence of Opposition status.

It's also unclear how much value she can get out of fighting the suits at BC Hydro Corp., British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. and other agencies that are, essentially, in her government's thrall.

What is clear, though, is many British Columbians might perceive Clark's supporters as being elites. Take Pamela Martin, the premier's outreach director, for example.

Before being appointed to that $130,000 per year position, she was Clark's membership drive chair and election day co-chair during the Liberal leadership race. But before all that, Martin was a celebrity anchor with Global BC and later CTV British Columbia.

That past on-camera profile undoubtedly made her a popular part of Clark's bid to succeed Campbell. But there's a difference between being popular and a populist.

Indeed, Martin is also known for being a high-profile member of provincial society, having, according to The Vancouver Sun, married real estate developer John Haibeck in May 2000 at one of Vancouver's exclusive private clubs. Which perhaps explains why The Province's editorial cartoonist Dan Murphy satirized Martin as Clark's "celebrity toady."

That isn't necessarily someone you'd expect to be working in the office of a populist premier. Nor would you expect a populist premier to be backed by a powerful corporate lobbyist like Patrick Kinsella, whose government relations firm has consulted for companies such as gambling giant Great Canadian Gaming Corp.

Kinsella has likely been handsomely compensated by his clients, as is suggested by him being a player of the sport of kings (thoroughbred horseracing) and having a Shaughnessy mansion which, as first reported by freelancer Bob Mackin, is being sold for $6.49 million.

As such, he's far from being the everyman a populist would stand up for -- or take a donation from, as Clark's campaign did when it accepted $20,000 worth in donations from Kinsella's company. Instead, he's the kind of man a populist would stand up against.

Nevertheless, it's possible Clark may yet become a populist. Many of those interviewed for this story spoke of her upbringing in Burnaby as being more blue than white collar and how the premier believes government should do what the public wants.

To find out what the public wants, Clark, unlike her predecessor Gordon Campbell, isn't averse to polling. Indeed, the premier's chief of staff Mike McDonald and her principal secretary Dimitri Pantazopoulos both have backgrounds in public opinion research, as does Mike Wilson, who presently has a consulting contract with the Liberals.

But, perhaps more importantly, she's someone who learns by talking to people. That interaction is her favourite part of being a politician and was her favourite part of being a talk show host at CKNW. It also, more than any personal ideology, drives which policies she champions -- an example being her radio caller-inspired crusade against bullying.