PROFILE: BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson works to shed elitist image

Andrew Wilkinson’s family didn’t have much money when he was young.

The family immigrated from Australia to Kamloops, and Wilkinson started saving the meager pay he received from his paper route.

When he saved up enough money, he didn’t spend it on himself but on his sister’s Christmas presents.

“I remember I bought a record for my sister for Christmas knowing that she didn’t have a record player so that I could keep it when she went back to university,” said Wilkinson.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I remember I bought a record for my sister for Christmas knowing that she didn't have a record player so that I could keep it when she went back to university," said Wilkinson.

It’s stories like this one that Wilkinson tells in an attempt to show off a different side.

The former advanced education minister and attorney general in Christy Clark’s cabinet has been forced to face questions about his elitist background.

His riding of Vancouver-Quilchena is one of the most affluent in the country. He was attending medical school in teens before he studied law at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship.

WATCH: BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson on future of the party

5:24 BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson on future of the party

As he works to change his image, Wilkinson points to his formative years in Kamloops, where hunted for grouse and fished.

His family immigrated in Canada when he was four years old and his mother didn’t finish high school.

“I think I have a pretty good handle on what life is like for regular people,” Wilkinson said.

The new BC Liberal leader also sees himself as a bit of an underdog.

He said he wasn’t expected to win the Rhodes Scholarship, nor was he expected to win the BC Liberal leadership.

After the first round of balloting, he was sitting in third place and was able to jump over both Michael Lee and frontrunner Dianne Watts to win the job.

But it’s a job that comes with major challenges. Wilkinson takes over a BC Liberal party that is in need of a fresh approach.

Former premier Christy Clark was the face of the party for six years before she resigned, unable to secure a fifth straight majority for the party in the 2017 election.

The Liberals have been attacked for being out of touch on housing, child care and transit issues, all major concerns in the Lower Mainland.

For now, Wilkinson is shying away from saying how the party will fix those problems but he understands they will all be critical parts of any platform the party lays out before the next provincial election.

“We have to make sure that this time we are really talking with real people with real problems and not about credit ratings and GDP ratios,” said Wilkinson.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We have to make sure that this time we are really talking with real people with real problems and not about credit ratings and GDP ratios," said Wilkinson.

The 60-year-old first became involved as the volunteer president of the BC Liberals in 1996.

That was parlayed into a job as the deputy minister responsible for intergovernmental relations where he described a “sense of purpose.”

That feeling pulled him back into politics, leading him to seek election as an MLA in 2013.

But what drove him to leadership was principally his children. Two of his three kids are in university, the third is in the workforce.

It’s clear to Wilkinson that his kids will have a harder time finding a home and affording living Metro Vancouver than he did.

“They are facing the challenges of the future and I am very supportive of them of course and want them to have the same sense of optimism for the future as I did,” said Wilkinson.

“If I am fortunate to become the leader of the government my goal is that everyone in that generation has that sense of hope.”

But what people are wondering now is whether Wilkinson has the mettle to end up as premier.

WATCH: Wilkinson puts Stone on the defence over ministerial record

2:40 Wilkinson puts Stone on the defence over ministerial record

He was scrappy at times in the Liberal leadership campaign, attacking both friends (Todd Stone) and foes (Dianne Watts).

He was also once called out in the B.C. legislature for labelling the BC NDP a chicken coop and clucking like a chicken. He quickly withdrew the sound effects from the official record.

One of Wilkinson’s advantages is that he will have every chance to prove he belongs.

Starting on Tuesday, he will square off as leader of the opposition against Premier John Horgan for the first time. A rivalry that will only continue to grow with an eye on the 2021 election.