The unprecedented nature of 2021 has thrust a number of politicians and others in British Columbia into an unexpected spotlight.
These are some of those that stood out politically in B.C. in 2021.
Rosanne Casimir
Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc and the First Nation’s Chief Rosanne Casimir were thrust into the national spotlight in May.
Casimir led publicly in the First Nations response to the discovery of unmarked graves of what are believed to be more than 200 children found near the site of a former residential school in Kamloops.
The 53-year-old was front and centre in calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to come and visit the community. Trudeau turned down an invitation on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to visit the community.
Casimir raised her concerns about Trudeau not coming, and he eventually visited on Oct. 18.
During the visit, Casimir pushed again for Ottawa to fund a healing centre in Kamloops to help survivors and address the intergenerational trauma caused by residential schools.
Henry Braun
Abbotsford’s mayor was a latecomer to politics, first becoming elected to city council a decade ago at the age of 61.
The former rancher and the CEO of Pacific Northern Rail Contractors Corp has been mayor now for seven years but has never been tested quite like November.
As storms hit his community, he led with compassion and tireless energy. So tireless, he slept three hours a night in the early days still managing to tend to his animals on his farm.
It was his leadership during worries the Barrowtown Pump Station would fail that was widely praised by those in his community and those across the province.
Dr. Bonnie Henry
As long as there is a pandemic, Dr. Bonnie Henry will be an integral part of the lives of British Columbians.
There are few that with the signature on the bottom of a provincial order can dramatically change the way we live our lives.
Henry was praised across the country for her calm demeanor. As the pandemic dragged on, the criticism mounted as well. Threats against the provincial health officer led to her requiring a police detail.
Henry’s decision to widen the gap between the first and second dose has been praised as a crucial decision in boosting B.C.’s vaccination rates.
Her decision not to close Whistler before spring break has been criticized as fueling the Delta-driven third wave.
Adrian Dix
The man of many numbers has entrenched his position as the province’s number giver in chief.
Health Minister Adrian Dix has provided consistent updates on the number of cancelled surgeries, the percentage of people vaccinated while managing the larger file in this government’s mandate.
But Dix has focused on more than just COVID-19. The province has opened more primary urgent care centres and directed additional resources to the plagued ambulance service.
The 57-year old also appointed Mary Ellen Turpel Lafond to investigate when allegations of racism was brought to light in the province’s health care system late in 2020, with the review concluding this past year.
Mike Farnworth, Rob Fleming and Lana Popham
The trio of cabinet ministers in Horgan’s government formed the provincial leads for the flood response.
Farnworth, the Public Safety Minister, took the heat for the province not providing early enough warning of the initial storms. He then led the public briefings to inform the public about subsequent storms and the steps the province was taking to support those impacted by the floods.
Fleming, B.C.’s Transportation Minister, has been making the decisions on how to re-open roadways and when to close them. He will lead the decisions around the future of the Coquihalla.
Popham, the province’s Agriculture Minister, has used her extensive Rolodex of the province’s farmers to reach out directly to those impacted. She has focused her attention on the impacts on livestock and livelihoods in areas devastated by flooding.
Kevin Falcon
What is old, is new again.
Having left politics in 2012, Falcon is hoping to mount a comeback as the next leader of the BC Liberal Party.
The 58-year old has left his job as a developer and replaced it with the title of the front runner in the party’s leadership race.
Teri Mooring
When Teri Mooring became the president of the BC Teachers Federation in 2019, she was bracing for a busy term.
The teacher’s union had an expiring contract with the provincial government and considering the last negotiations led to a strike there was a lot of pressure involved.
What has followed, has been far more intense than anyone would have expected.
Mooring has led the union’s advocacy work for safer working condition for teachers during the pandemic.
At times the union president fought those even within her own union for not pushing hard enough for measures from masking to vaccine priority to ventilation.
The latest challenge for Mooring has been vaccine mandates for staff in the school system. The BCTF was slow originally but eventually supported a mandate. But the union has pushed hard against the province’s patchwork approach of allowing the school boards to decide.
Laird Cronk
The BC Federation of Labour has long been seen as one of the NDP’s greatest allies.
But when it comes to paid sick pay, the federation and its president Laird Cronk has become a worthy sparring partner.
Cronk has led the push for the province to put in place paid sick pay, both during the pandemic and long term. The province agreed to put in both.
But although the federation applauded the province for the five permanent sick days, Cronk and his organization were quick to point out B.C. should have put in 10 days to match what leading jurisdictions around the world are doing.
Adam Gaudette
Number 88 in the programs. Number one on the COVID-19 positive list.
The former Vancouver Canucks forward was patient zero, the hockey player responsible for bringing the Delta variant into the Canucks orbit.
Gaudette’s positive test took place at a time when little was known about the variant and provincial health became involved with the team managing the cases.
The outbreak among the NHL team was one of the worst in professional sports, with 25 players eventually testing positive and the team forced to postpone half a dozen games.
Hockey insiders have reported the team fast-tracked trading Gaudette because bringing the virus into the locker room did not sit well with his teammates.
Dr. Penny Ballem
Dr. Penny Ballem has made the occasional appearance at the provincial COVID-19 briefings but it is behind the scenes where she has made the biggest noise.
Ballem was a late addition to the province’s vaccination plan, replacing Dr. Ross Brown. The former city manager at the City of Vancouver and deputy minister of health provincially has managed all the major logistical challenges.
While Henry has focused on the who of vaccination, Ballem has focused on the how.
Her team has helped staff and manage mass vaccination clinics as well as worry about getting, at times, a single dose to where it needs to be.
John Horgan
The philosophy for Premier John Horgan has remained largely the same: let the experts lead and stay out of the way.
But where Horgan has led has been on the big stuff. The relationship with Ottawa is at a high for British Columbia, meaning funding for housing, child care and transit.
Coming off a decisive election victory in 2020, Horgan has expanded his profile nationally as the chair of the Council of the Federation.
He has had his Horganisms, apologizing for describing the heatwave deaths as “a part of life” and encouraging people to travel a little early during the pandemic.
The year-ender with a surprise announcement from the premier is his throat cancer diagnosis. He is now in the midst of receiving treatments.
Jennifer Whiteside
The first-term MLA was thrust into action immediately. Whiteside was appointed the province’s Minister of Education in the midst of a global pandemic.
Whiteside has worked alongside provincial health to determine what schooling in the pandemic has looked like.
She has received criticism from vocal advocacy groups for a lack of testing for students, ventilation in schools and a lack of information around COVID-19 cases.
When the concern mounted of COVID information, the province worked with the health authorities to bring the exposure notices back. Whiteside also made the decision to give school boards the power to vote on vaccine mandates.
Jan Polderman
Jan Polderman is a part-time mayor, with full-time responsibility to worry about his destroyed community.
The mayor of Lytton was one of the first people called when sparks turned to flames in his community his past summer.
Polderman worked his way through the town trying to get people out of the way as flames destroyed almost all of the town.
He will now head into an election year with the focus on working to rebuild and trying to bring people back home.
Dale Bumstead
No matter if Dale Bumstead did, it didn’t seem to make a big difference.
The mayor of Dawson Creek has been working tirelessly to get his community vaccinated. He pushed the province to provide more vaccines and encouraged those in Dawson Creek to take those shots.
But even so, the town remained one of the province’s COVID-19 hot spots for a large chunk of 2021.
By November, Bumstead took a break from Facebook due to the enduring harassment he was getting from community members. He also hinted at retiring before next fall’s election.
Shirley Bond
When Shirley Bond took the reigns of the BC Liberal ship it was rudderless.
Coming off the worst election in the modern era for the party, Bond was thrust into action by her fellow MLAs after Andrew Wilkinson stepped down.
Bond, who has been an MLA for 20 years, led the party’s new group of MLAs in the legislature against a much larger and largely virtual NDP government.
The former Jobs minister and Attorney General focused her attention on mental health, devastating impacts from this fire’s summers and a lack of data around COVID-19.
Her time as a leader in the leadership is over, but she will stay on as an MLA through at least the next election.
Doug McCallum
Being under RCMP investigation for mischief is not something a mayor wants but it is exactly where Doug McCallum finds himself.
Surrey’s mayor is the centre point of the Mounties investigating a possible criminal charge of public mischief in connection to allegations made by McCallum about an incident in a Save-On-Foods parking in September.
McCallum has not commented to Global News about the investigation.
During a 20-minute interview with Global in September, the mayor alleged he had been struck by a car driven by a woman canvassing for signatures for the group Keep the RCMP in Surrey in the parking lot of a Save-On-Foods store in South Surrey on Sept. 4.
That interview is now evidence in the public-mischief case, along with surveillance video from the Save-On-Foods.
McCallum has been a lightning bolt for controversy, especially around the decision to move on from the RCMP in Surrey and replace it with a Surrey Police Department.
Jack Crompton
It is a balancing act impossible for a mayor: his town’s economic well-being and its citizens’ safety.
Whistler mayor Jack Crompton was front and centre in his push to keep the people of his community safe from COVID while also trying to protect its economy.
Crompton advocated to prioritize vaccines in the area and worked with the ski resort to provide support for the workers living in congregates settings.
But the measures put in place did not work fast enough and Henry closed Whistler down early in the spring of 2021.
Comments