Premier Gordon Campbell vowed Thursday, even though he's resigning, to push ahead with an aggressive agenda that includes an income tax cut, new education strategies, and a major restructuring of the provincial government.

But two former premiers say Campbell's impending departure and the turmoil of a leadership race pose problems.

"How do you effectively manage government through a massive change at a time when you clearly have said you're going and there'll be a new person coming?" asked former NDP premier Dan Miller, who served as interim leader after Glen Clark resigned in 1999.

"[Campbell's] ability now to push the bureaucracy to move on the issues . . . I think is somewhat diminished — particularly if there is a level of disagreement within cabinet."

Miller pointed to Campbell's planned restructuring of the natural resource ministries, which had already prompted a public rebuke from Energy Minister Bill Bennett.

"The restructuring issue is very difficult," Miller said. "It's been tried on a number of occasions. I've had some experience with that. I'm a bit of the view that it's easier said than done, and it's a mammoth task internally."

Campbell showed no signs of putting any of the changes on hold, telling reporters that he'll continue at the helm until the Liberals elect a new leader.

"We've launched a pretty aggressive program for the spring legislative agenda," he said. "We have the second largest personal income tax cut that we've had. We've still got a budget to go through. We still have initiatives with regard to early childhood learning and development that we're going to do. I'll be premier until that time."

Former NDP premier Ujjal Dosanjh, who replaced Miller in 2000, said Campbell did the right thing in stepping down. But he agreed that the timing is difficult with a budget and throne speech just months away.

"It does cause some problems, but there's no way out of it," said Dosanjh, now the Liberal MP for Vancouver South. "You could have an interim premier but that would be the same thing."

Allan Tupper, director of the political science department at the University of B.C., said a leader's exit usually occurs much more quickly than Campbell's departure.

"You've got a lame duck, and you've also got a leadership contest launched which alters the dynamic of a caucus anyway," he said. "Something's got to give in there if they want to rejuvenate themselves. We'll see how it plays out."

NDP Leader Carole James said it is unclear who will call the shots leading up to February's budget.

"And will it be a budget that gets undone three months later when a new leader comes into place? Will there be different priorities? Will we see a whole new change of direction? That's not good for the economy, which means it's not good for the province," James said.

But Finance Minister Colin Hansen, who has a legislated duty to bring in that budget on the third Tuesday of February, said it will be business as usual over the next few months.

"We have an obligation to continue to run the affairs of the province, and to make sure that we continue to have good government," he said. "We're well into the budget process now, and we'll continue to do our due diligence."

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