Premier-designate Christy Clark can send a symbolic message that she won't govern like Gordon Campbell

As Christy Clark prepares to be sworn in as B.C.'s next premier on Monday (March 14), I have a small request to make.

This time, I'm not going to ask her to do anything major, like reducing B.C.'s abysmal child-poverty rate or ensuring that the super-wealthy pay a greater share of the burden for health care and education.

After all, she hasn't even taken office yet.

No, this is a much smaller wish. And it's being conveyed on behalf of the numerous British Columbians who visit the government website on a regular basis.

Clark, as a former talk-show host, can probably relate to this request because I'm sure she regularly went to the home page, which the public pays for.

And what did Clark and the rest of us see whenever we visited that home page? Invariably, visual propaganda focused around Gordon Campbell.

Every day for almost nine years, there was a photograph of the premier in the main window on the home page. Rarely did he share this prime piece of Internet real estate with his cabinet ministers.

It was a reflection of Campbell's style of governing: leader-focused, with most cabinet ministers playing relatively minor roles in the decision-making process.

The photos in the main window were in addition to his smiling mug that graced the upper left corner of the B.C. government home page.

If the premier met anyone famous such as the Dalai Lama or International Olympic Committee supremo Jacques Rogge, the image would sometimes remain on the home page for days.

No other provincial government in Canada turned its home page into the premier's personal, taxpayer-financed fiefdom like Campbell.

Most provinces feature a small picture of the premier with a link to his site. New Brunswick doesn't even include a picture of the premier permanently placed on its home page.

Premier-designate Clark has promised to make some changes in the way she governs.

It's easy to be skeptical when you look at her cast of advisers and her leadership campaign team. Some were former Gordon Campbell hacks and one is a right-wing climate-change-denying former energy executive.

However, Clark can take a quick, easy step to differentiate herself from her predecessor.

End the cult of personality on the government home page.

I'm sure that members of Clark's new cabinet, not to mention the rest of us, would appreciate the gesture.

Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.