Andrew Wilkinson
Andrew Wilkinson, is a Canadian politician. He is the leader of the British Columbia Liberal Party, and currently serves as the leader of BC's Legislative Official Opposition. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2013 provincial election. He represents the electoral district of Vancouver-Quilchena.
He served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General from June 12, 2017 until an NDP minority government was sworn in the following month. He previously served as Minister of Advanced Education from December 18, 2014 and the Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens' Services from June 10, 2013.
He was the deputy minister of the British Columbia Ministry of Economic Development from 2003 to 2006, where he was responsible for economic issues, trade and tourism. He also served as deputy minister for Intergovernmental Relations in the Premier's Office for two years from 2001 to 2003.
Early life and education
Wilkinson was born in Australia. His family immigrated to Canada when he was four and he grew up in Kamloops.Wilkinson attended medical school at the University of Alberta. Three years into school, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford where he obtained his first law degree. He then returned to the University of Alberta to finish his M.D.
After medical school, Wilkinson worked for a few years as a doctor in Campbell River, Lillooet and Dease Lake before making the switch to law.
He received his L.L.B. from Dalhousie University in 1987 and was called to the British Columbia bar in 1988.
Wilkinson was president of the BC Civil Liberties Association from 1993 to 1995.
In 2006, after leaving his post as a deputy minister in Gordon Campbell's BC Liberal government, Wilkinson joined the Vancouver office of McCarthy Tétrault, a major national law firm, where he practised as a litigator.
Politics
Wilkinson served as the president of the BC Liberal Party from 1998 to 2001. After the party formed the largest majority government in the province's history in 2001, party leader Gordon Campbell appointed Wilkinson to be the deputy minister responsible for intergovernmental relations. In 2003, he was transferred to the position of deputy minister for the Ministry of Small Business & Economic Development. In 2006, he returned to the private sector by becoming a partner in the Litigation Group of McCarthy Tétrault He remained active in Liberal politics in the intervening years, having served as riding president of former federal minister Stephen Owen and BC campaign co-chair to Michael Ignatieff's leadership campaign in 2006.With the 2013 election approaching and Colin Hansen retiring in his Vancouver-Quilchena riding, the 54-year old Wilkinson stood for the BC Liberal nomination. He was contested by Vancouver City Councillor Suzanne Anton but won the contest, with Anton being shifted to the Vancouver-Fraserview riding where another BC Liberal incumbent was retiring. He easily won the Vancouver-Quilchena riding in the 2013 British Columbia general election with over 60% of the vote as his party won the election and formed a majority government.
40th Parliament
As the 40th Parliament of British Columbia began, Premier Christy Clark appointed Wilkinson as the Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens' Services on June 10, 2013. In that role, he oversaw the closure of the Queen's Printer in favour of contracting the services from privately-owned printers and the designing of the BC Services Card to combine drivers' licenses and CareCards. On December 17, 2014, Premier Clark had Wilkinson and Amrik Virk switch positions and Wilkinson became the new Minister of Advanced Education. In this role, he introduced his first two bills, both on February 11, 2015. The Chartered Professional Accountants Act merged chartered accountants, certified general accountants and management accountants into one professional regulatory body. The Private Training Act repealed the 37th Parliament's Private Career Training Institutions Act and moved regulation to the Private Training Institutions Branch of the Ministry of Advanced Education, ending the industry's ability to self-regulate. In 2016, he introduced one final bill before the parliament ended, the Sexual Violence and Misconduct Policy Act which requires all public post-secondary institutions establish a sexual misconduct policy.During his time as Advanced Education Minister, Wilkinson oversaw the creation of 19,000 full-time equivalent spaces for in-demand training and education in British Columbia. His ministry committed over a billion dollars for infrastructure upgrades to B.C. post-secondary schools. He also targeted government investments at increasing access to skilled trades programs, adding 3,730 new seats in schools throughout the province. Additionally, as a strong advocate for access to post-secondary education, he created the BC Completion Grant for Graduates and expanded the BC Loan Forgiveness Program to help students get out of debt faster. In 2015, as Minister of Advanced Education, Wilkinson told a CBC interviewer that "...70 per cent of students go through their higher education with no debt whatsoever,". That fact was quickly refuted by the Canadian Federation of Students who pointed to a B.C. Stats report from 2013 which recorded that, in fact, 51% of students leave post-secondary debt-free.
Following a January, 2017 article in The New York Times entitled "British Columbia: The 'Wild West' of Canadian Political Cash" Wilkinson was delegated to speak on behalf of the BC Liberal party, saying: "No one gets special treatment by being a campaign donor," and "It's a system that works." Wilkinson himself hosted a $1000-per-plate fundraiser in September 2014 in his riding of Vancouver-Quilchena.
41st Parliament
Wilkinson sought re-election in the 2017 election but was challenged by youth activist Madeline Lalonde for the BC NDP, accountant Michael Barkusky for the Green Party, and Libertarian William Morrison. With over 50% of the vote Wilkinson easily won re-election The BC Liberal Party won a small majority of the seats thus the Green Party and the NDP Party used their combined minority of seats to form the subsequent government. Incoming Premier John Horgan appointed fellow Vancouver MLA David Eby to replace Wilkinson as Minister of Justice and Attorney General.BC Liberal leadership race
Once the BC Liberal Party leadership election was underway to replace Christy Clark, who had announced her resignation on July 28, 2017, Wilkinson announced his candidacy on September 25. He made the announcement at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Coal Harbour with fellow BC Liberal MLAs Michelle Stilwell, Mary Polak and John Rustad, Doug Clovechok and Tom Shypitka who were immediately endorsing him. He would be eventually endorsed by 13 MLAs, the most of any candidate. On the initial ballot he placed third, behind Dianne Watts and Michael Lee, but the contest was decided by ranked voting so that by the fifth and final ballot won with 53% and became leader of the BC Liberal Party and the official opposition on February 3, 2018. At its subsequent annual convention, the party under Wilkinson unveiled a new brand identity with the slogan "Opportunity for All of B.C." to replace Clark's "Today's BC Liberals".Electoral reform
In the 2018 British Columbia electoral reform referendum, the BC Liberal Party under Wilkinson's leadership registered third-party advertising sponsors to support retaining the existing First-past-the-post voting system and reject a proportional representation system. On November 8 he participated in a province-wide televised debate against Premier John Horgan who argued in favour of proportional representation. The result of the referendum was 61% in favour of continuing with the current first-past-the-post voting system.Comments about renters
In a speech in the legislature on February 27, 2019, Wilkinson said about renters: “I lived in a dozen different rentals. It was challenging at times. But it was fun. It’s part of growing up and getting better. We’ve all done it. It’s kind of a wacky time of life but it can be really enjoyable. Being a renter is a fact of life. It’s a rite of passage.”His speech was quickly criticized by renters who called his remarks out of touch. NDP Housing Minister Selina Robinson pointed to his opposition to the BC NDP’s speculation tax and cap on rent increases as more proof that he wasn’t in touch with the experiences of renters.