Gordon Campbell (Canadian politician)
- For the recipient of the Victoria Cross and MP, see Gordon Campbell, VC
- For the Scottish Conservative politician, see Gordon Campbell, Baron Campbell of Croy
The Honourable Gordon Muir Campbell | |
|---|---|
 The Hon. Gordon Campbell. | |
| 34th Premier of British Columbia | |
| In office June 5, 2001 – Incumbent | |
| Preceded by | Ujjal Dosanjh |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 12, 1948 Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Political party | BC Liberal |
| Spouse | Nancy Campbell |
Gordon Muir Campbell, MLA (born January 12, 1948) is the 34th Premier of British Columbia. He is the leader of the British Columbia Liberal Party, which holds a majority in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.
Early life
Born into a wealthy Vancouver family, Campbell's circumstances changed abruptly at age 13 when his father committed suicide. The Campbell family was then forced to move out of their Point Grey family home and into a small rented apartment.
Campbell attended University Hill Secondary School in Vancouver. After high school, he enrolled in Dartmouth College in New Hampshire with an athletic scholarship, studying urban management and earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.
Under the Canadian University Service Overseas program, Gordon spent two years in Yola, Nigeria teaching at a secondary school. On his return to Canada he worked as an executive assistant to Art Phillips, then mayor of Vancouver, from 1973 to 1976. Campbell then left to become a realty developer. He became Marathon Realty's general manager of development, and was founder of Citycore Development Corporation.
Campbell later earned a Master of Business Administration degree in 1978 from Simon Fraser University. Campbell has been awarded the Simon Fraser University “Distinguished Alumni” Award and the Inter-Faith Brotherhood “Man of the Year” Award. [1].
Vancouver councillor and mayor
Campbell was elected to the Vancouver city council in 1984, and from 1986 to 1993, Campbell served as the mayor of Vancouver for three successive terms. Campbell's tenure is most noted for the development of the Expo lands, the re-development of the Yaletown neighbourhood, and the foundation of the Coal Harbour residential community. Campbell's most significant public works during his term were the construction of the new Vancouver Public Library.
He also served as chair of the Greater Vancouver Regional District and president of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities.
BC Liberal leader
Campbell became leader of the BC Liberal Party in 1993, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly next year in a Vancouver-Quilchena by-election. He has represented the Vancouver-Point Grey riding since 1996. He lost the 1996 BC provincial election despite winning more votes, and he remained opposition leader under New Democratic Party Premiers Glen Clark, Dan Miller and Ujjal Dosanjh.
Clark's government was beset by controversy and difficult economic and fiscal conditions. After the NDP's approval rating dropped to historic lows, in the BC election of 2001 Campbell's Liberals defeated them, taking 77 of 79 seats in the legislature. This was the largest majority of seats, and the second-largest majority of the popular vote in BC history.
Although he is leader of a nominally liberal party, Campbell is better identified as a small-c conservative. The BC Liberal Party has no formal ties to the Liberal Party of Canada, and is essentially a centre-right coalition which is opposed by the New Democratic Party of British Columbia.
Campbell's first term
Tax Reductions
In 2001, Campbell campaigned on a promise to significantly reduce income taxes to stimulate the economy. A day after taking office, Campbell reduced personal income tax for all taxpayers by 25 per cent.[2] Cuts were applied to every tax bracket. The government also introduced reductions in the corporate income tax, and eliminated the Corporation Capital Tax (a tax on job creation) for most taxpayers.
Conviction for Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol
In January 2003, Campbell was arrested and pled no contest for driving under the influence of alcohol while vacationing in Hawaii. According to court records Campbell's blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit. As is customary in the United States, Campbell's mugshot was provided to the media by Hawaiian police. The image has proved to be a lasting personal embarrassment, frequently used by detractors and opponents.
It is unknown whether his B.C. driver's license was suspended for the Hawaii conviction.
Austerity
To balance the provincial budget, Campbell's first term was also noted for fiscal austerity. This included major reductions in welfare rolls (by making it harder to quality for assistance) and some social services, deregulation, the sale of some government assets (in particular the ferries built by the previous government during the Fast Ferry Scandal), and the privitization of BC Rail (which was made, despite contrary campaign promises). Campbell also reduced the size of the civil service, and closed some government agent and welfare offices in some communities. He also closed the BC Human Rights Commission and replaced it with the BC Human Rights Tribunal [3].
A noteworthy aspect of Campbell's first administration was the prevalent labour strife in the public sector. To reduce program costs, the government embarked on a policy to hold most public sector unions to "zero, zero and zero" percent wage increases over three years. Campbell’s government passed bill 29, the Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act that imposed a contract on over 40,000 union workers. [4] Although there were some labour unions that took job action over these contract positions, BC had the fewest number of worker-days lost due to strikes and lockouts in 30 years. [5]
Education
The Campbell government passed legislation in August 2001 declaring education as an “essential service” and therefore making it illegal for teachers to strike. This fulfilled a platform plank from the previous election campaign. [6].
The government embarked upon the largest expansion of BC's post-secondary education system since the foundation of Simon Fraser University in 1965. In 2004, the government announced that 25,000 new post-secondary places would be established between 2004 and 2010. [7]
The Campbell government also lifted the six-year long tuition fee freeze that was placed on the BC universities and colleges by the previous NDP government. Since then, tuition fees have risen by an average of 88% and now remain within Canadian averages. [8]. The Campbell government has since moved forward since then to cap tuition at the rate of inflation. The tuition limit policy took effect September 2005. [9]
Health care
The Campbell government drew up legislation that required health authorities to contract out positions when savings could be predicted. This led to the privatization of many healthcare jobs. [10] [11] [12] These changes met resistance from many health care workers and resulted in a strike by some of them. This strike was ended by court order and amendments by the government on parts of the legislation.
The Campbell government increased health funding by $3-billion during their first term in office to help meet the demand at hand and to increase wages for some health professionals [13].
During their first term in office, the Campbell government increased the number of new nurse training spaces by 2,500, and increase of 62% [14]. At the same time, they nearly doubled the doctors in training, and opened new medical training facilities in Kamloops and Prince George. [15]
While the increase in doctors in training has been seen as a positive, the BC Medical Association has argued more spaces still need to be opened. [16]
Wage rates for doctors and nurses also increased in the Campbell government’s first term. Nurses received a 23.5% raise [17] while doctors received a 20.6% raise [18]. The government argued these wage increases were needed to attract and retain skilled professionals in the health care system.
First Nations
During the 2001 election, the BC Liberals also campaigned on a promise to hold a consultative referendum on First Nation treaty rights.[1]
The referendum, led by Attorney General Geoff Plant, proposed eight questions that voters were asked to either support or oppose. Critics claimed the phrasing was flawed or biased toward a predetermined response. While some critics, especially First Nations and religious groups, called for a boycott of the referendum, by the May 15 deadline almost 800,000 British Columbians had cast their ballots. About one third of ballots were returned, significantly less than the usual turnout in provincial general elections, but considerably more than predicted by opponents.[citation needed]
The ballots that were returned showed enthusiastic support, with over 80 per cent of participating voters agreeing to all eight proposed principles. The referendum cost about $9 million.
After the conclusion of the treaty referendum, many treaty negotiations resumed.
In the lead-up to the 2005 election, Campbell discussed opening up a New Relationship with Aboriginal People [19]. This has become the foundation for agreements in principle that were made during the second term.
2010 Olympics
British Columbia won the right to host the 2010 Winter Olympics on July 2nd, 2003. This was a joint Winter Olympics bid by Vancouver and the ski resort of Whistler. [20].
Campbell, a main proponent of the bid to get the games, attended the final presentations in Prague, Czech Republic and made an impassioned plea for the games to come back to Canada for the first time since it was held in Calgary in 1988.
Electoral reform
Prior to the 2001 election, Campbell made political reform and electoral reform a campaign promise. This was first reflected in the 1996 provincial election where Campbell’s BC Liberals received more votes than their rivals the BC NDP (42% vs. 39% of the popular vote), but the non-proportional nature of the electoral system resulted in the NDP forming government (39 seats vs. 33 seats [21]. The 2001 election again reflected this issue as the BC Liberal party received 57% percent of the popular vote, but won 97% of the seats [22].
The new Campbell administration introduced fixed-term election dates for BC, departing from the standard British parliamentary procedure that left election dates at the discretion of the party in power. Campbell also founded a first in Canada, the Citizens' Assembly composed of randomly-selected British Columbians from around the province. The Assembly advised adopting the Single Transferable Vote system in future elections. Whether or not to adopt BC-STV was put to a province-wide referendum; the 57.4% in favour fell slightly short of the 60 percent required to pass.[2]
2005 election
Campbell campaigned on the slogan "Our Plan is Working", alluding to BC's recovered economic conditions and lower unemployment. In the May 17, 2005, election, Campbell and the BC Liberals won a second majority government, with a reduced number of seats. Campbell thus became the first BC Premier to be re-elected in more than 25 years.
Campbell's second term
The economy
The economy remains strong during Campbell’s second term in office. B.C. has created 320,000 new jobs since December 2001, the best job creation record in Canada. In 2006, the economy has created 65,300 more jobs, virtually all full time positions [23]. By Spring 2007, unemployment had fallen to 4.0% -- the lowest rate in 30 years, and 6 full points less than when Campbell took office.[24]
2010 Olympics projects begin
After Campbell's re-election, major construction work for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games got underway. This includes venue construction, the Olympic Village, and a significant road construction program on the Sea-to-Sky Highway to Whistler. While the majority of the public continues to support the Olympics, there is mounting concern over cost overruns on major construction projects as the cost of labour and raw materials rise beyond initial projections.
Labour relations
In 2006 the Campbell government changed its strategy in dealing with public sector unions given that over 90% of the public sector labour force had contracts expiring early that year. Bonuses of between $3,500 and $4,000 per employee were offered if contracts were signed before March 31, 2006 (June 30, 2006 in the case of the BCTF). The strategy succeeded as virtually all public sector contracts have now been extended to after the 2009 election and 2010 Olympics. This was the first time a provincial government and the BCTF reached a negotiated collective agreement. [25]
Health care
The Campbell government launched the Conversation on Health, a province-wide consultation with British Columbians on their health care to lay the groundwork for improvements to the principles of the Canada Health Act that will be presented in the Fall of 2007 [26].
First Nations
The Campbell government has taken steps to resolve a number of First Nations issues in their second term. Campbell has initialed final agreements in principle with the Tsawwassen [27], Maa-Nulth [28], and Lheidli T’enneh First Nations [29].
There have been opponents that have come out against these agreements as well, mostly with respect to the Tsawwassen agreement’s proposition to take a parcel of land out of the Agricultural Land Reserve [30]. There has also been support on the local level as well [31].
References
- ^ In the spring of 2002, the government held the referendum. "B.C. treaty referendum" - CBC, July 2, 2002
- ^ Preliminary Referendum Results, Elections BC.
External links
- Official biography (PDF file)
- Gordon Campbell's official MLA site
- Canadian Encyclopedia entry on Gordon Campbell
- Maclean's interview with Campbell, 1999
- "Campbell Contradiction" (Globe and Mail profile, April 2005)
- CBC profile, April 2005
- B.C. premier fined for drunk driving
