You can take a premier out of commercial radio, but you can't take commercial radio out of the premier.

The former hot-liner returned to her microphone Monday with an ill-conceived appearance on CKNW. The show's premise - "Christy Clark: The Throne Speech She Never Gave" - prompted some controversy last week when first previewed.

The quaint notion of announcing the public agenda to the public in a neutral public place was parked. That's so old school.

Clark sat down in her former studio and chatted with host Bill Good, after getting nine minutes off the top to say her piece. Turns out the fuss was about nothing much. Her talk was about as opaque and vaguely encouraging as every other throne speech ever delivered.

The only difference was a number of commercial breaks that relieved the tedium. When it comes to unfocused rambles through a stream-of-consciousness "state of the province" address, the more timeouts the better.

Her government delivered a real throne speech back in October. A "really big substantive one," she reminded listeners who may have forgotten.

There was no need to do another four months later, as the legislature is just resuming where it left off.

"I'm not going to be pursuing flights of fancy and changing the agenda every six months," she said.

But she wanted it both ways - getting a free launch for the government's legislative program without having to go to the trouble of staging the big production.

There's no such thing as a free launch, though. She took a lot of heat for bypassing tradition and ignoring portions of B.C. that simply couldn't hear the speech. And in terms of content, the appearance really wasn't worth the trouble.

She stressed how much she's done to open up government, with town hall meetings, round tables and proactive disclosure. It's work for which she deserves full credit.

There was the obligatory reminder of the tough times and difficult issues, and the need to keep B.C. a safe harbour. She'll do that by avoiding chronic deficits, not making promises that can't be paid for and regretfully saying "no" sometimes to funding programs.

Since it wasn't a real throne speech, she could lay the politics on thicker than usual. So there was a lecture about being unable to afford going back to the "reckless and risky" policies of the NDP, who shovelled money off the back of the truck.

There was a hint of genuine news - a seniors agenda - that will become clear later today.

Clark also spent some time on the number of reviews she's ordered since becoming premier. They were offered as signs of progress.

Problems that festered during former premier Gordon Campbell's terms are being examined and dealt with.

B.C. Hydro plans to jack up electricity rates? Studied and rejected.

Community Living B.C.? Studied, re-studied and redesigned.

Clogged justice system? Studied and progress promised.

But the Opposition was ready with a counter-argument to those encouraging signs.

They released a count showing there have been 50 separate reviews of various issues in the past few years and 34 of them are still pending, some of them overdue.

Clark's government has called a good share of them herself. There's the review of Hydro brass bonuses and deferral accounting - prompted by an earlier review - as well as a general review of all Crown corporations, another look at raw-log exports and a legal aid review.

There are reviews of farmworkers' pay rates, the use of cosmetic pesticides, the natural gas sector, the municipal property tax system, the Vancouver float plane terminal and an immigration task force, to name a few.

The NDP has been generous in counting every single look at everything, in order to puff up the numbers. Some of them are routine, and some originated from places other than the premier's office. But the list makes it clear there are an awful lot of second looks underway.

There's also a list of reviews completed successfully: The Stanley Cup riot report, the sled dog task force, the gaming grant review and the Agricultural Land Commission review among them.

If it's any consolation, some of them are arriving at good conclusions.

Just So You Know: Line of the day was Clark's response to a question about the elimination of the HST. "If I could snap my fingers and get rid of the HST tomorrow, I would do it."

That's just what her predecessor might be thinking as well.

lleyne@timescolonist.com