- For the receipient of the Victoria Cross, see Gordon Campbell, VC
Premier Campbell with Queen Elizabeth II
The Honourable Gordon Campbell (b. 1947) is the current Premier of British Columbia. He is the leader of the BC Liberal Party, which holds a substantial majority in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.
Rise to power
Campbell attended public school in Vancouver, British Columbia. He then studied at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree. He later earned a Master of Business Administration from Simon Fraser University.
From 1986 to 1993, Campbell served as the Mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia for three terms. He was also a secondary school teacher, basketball and track coach in Yola, Nigeria, working under the auspices of CUSO. He and his family climbed Mount Kilimanjaro as a fundraiser for Alzheimer's, raising $130,000.
Campbell and his wife Nancy, a school vice-principal, have two sons.
Campbell became leader of the British Columbia Liberal Party in 1993. His party failed to be elected to power in the 1996 Provincial election despite winning a plurality of the vote. He remained opposition leader under NDP Premiers Glen Clark, Dan Miller and Ujjal Dosanjh. Under Clark and his NDP successors, the government presided over recurring budget deficits, a stagnant provincial economy, net population loss, numerous scandals related to the issuing of permits to casinos, sweetheart contracts with government unions and the production of unsuitable catamaran ferries, constructed with the direct involvement of the government and fraught with cost-overruns and design blunders eventually costing taxpayers $500 million. The NDP's approval rating dropped into the low teens and stayed there under Clark's successors. In the election of 2001 Campbell's Liberals defeated Premier Dosanjh and the NDP, taking 77 of 79 seats in the legislature.
Premier
Though leader of a nominally Liberal party, Campbell is usually identified as being small-c conservative, particularly in matters of business and economics, and socially liberal. The Liberals presented a detailed program of campaign commitments in 2001, but Campbell's main message to voters was that B.C. needed lower taxes and a smaller, streamlined provincial government in order to attract investment and grow its economy. As a first step in government, Campbell announced a 25 per cent reduction in personal income taxes, cutting the income tax rate for the bottom two tax brackets to the lowest level in Canada, and reducing taxes on the first $60,000 of income. Campbell predicted that the measure would soon pay for itself. In the following months, the government reduced the staff complement in its ministries, and announced a plan to eliminate one-third of all regulations then in force. By 2004, the unemployment rate was dramatically reduced and British Columbia's economic growth rate ranked fourth among the ten provinces, rather than tenth.
Campbell has demonstrated an ongoing interest in political reform. Early in its term, his administration introduced fixed-term elections for B.C., departing from the standard British parliamentary procedure, to ensure that the governing party would not be able to use political objectives to determine election dates. British Columbians will go to the polls in May 2005, exactly four years after the last election.
Campbell also founded a Citizens' Assembly composed of randomly-selected British Columbians from around the province. The Assembly has advised adopting the Single Transferable Vote system in future elections, which will be put to a province-wide referendum.
Campbell removed the six year long tuition freeze that was placed on the B.C. universities and colleges by the NDP government. Through inflation the tuition freeze had made B.C. tuition rates among the lowest in Canada. In 2002, Campbell also introduced the "double the opportunity" initiative, the goal of which was to double enrollment in electrical and computer engineering, computer science, and medicine in the next four years.
On January 9, 2003, Campbell became the first premier in Canadian history to be arrested while in office when he was caught by police on holiday in Maui, Hawaii while driving under the influence of alcohol. He apologized to the people of Maui and British Columbia, pled guilty to the offence and swore to abstain from alcohol and driving. The opposition attacked him for not resigning his position given his earlier promises that any cabinet minister under criminal investigation or subject to conflict of interest allegations would resign. The controversy surrounding this matter was intense; complete with the sale of T-shirts and other souvenirs bearing Campbell's mug shots[1].
Premier Campbell was a key figure in Vancouver's successful bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, and he led British Columbians in celebration when the International Olympic Committee announced the selection of Vancouver/Whistler in July 2003. The popularity of his government declined through late 2003 and early 2004. In spring 2003, surveys showed the Liberals trailing the NDP in public opinion for the first time since 1994. What Campbell has called "tough decisions" riled some voters; these decisions have resulted in public service layoffs, strikes, hospital closures, courthouse closures and service cuts. An agreement to lease the Crown-owned BC Rail property to a CN Rail has also been controversial.
The 2001 tax cuts, although arguably an impetus of BC's economic renewal, have been largely offset by increased gasoline taxes and user fees. Since taking office the Liberal government has faced a number of calamities such as the imposition of unlawful tariffs by the U.S. government on the importation of BC softwood, devastating forest fires, an ongoing infestation in central BC forests of the Mountain Pine Beetle, and a downturn in tourism following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the outbreak in Vancouver of SARS in the spring of 2003.
In each year of its mandate the Campbell government increased healthcare funding and infrastructure while eliminating government subsidies to businesses. The government ran deficits through to 2003, but has since balanced the budget. The BC government reduced BC’s sales tax back to 7% as they predicted the first budget surplus in four years.
Campbell has scored lower in poll ratings than his opponent, the NDP's Carole James. The latest polls, however, have Campbell's Liberals gaining in decided voters. The 2005 provincial election is expected to see a weaker Liberal majority.
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Preceded by: Ujjal Dosanjh 2000-2001 |
Premier of British Columbia since 2001 |
Succeeded by: in office |