BC Premier #29: Mike Harcourt

Premier of the Province of British Columbia.

Mike Harcourt at City Making in Paradise Name Michael Franklin Harcourt
Born: January 6, 1943 in Edmonton, AB
Died: hasn’t
Party: NDP
Held Office: Nov 5, 1991 to Feb 22, 1996
  • earned B.A. and Bachelor of Laws from the University of British Columbia (UBC)
  • 1973-1980: served as Vancouver alderman
  • 1980-1986: served as mayor Vancouver
    • major focus of his term as mayor was prep for Expo ’86
  • 1986: elected to BC provincial legislature
  • 1987: became the leader of NDP, and thus, the Leader of the Official Opposition
  • 1991: became premier by defeating then-Premier Rita Johnson in the provincial election
  • Feb 1996: resigned due to the “Bingogate” scandal (where an NDP party member used money raised for charity to fund the NDP. Though Harcourt wasn’t himself involved, he did the captain going done with the ship thing)
  • Nov 2002: suffered a spinal cord injury in a near-fatal accident at his cottage. Made a remarkable recovery.
  • Dec 2003: appointed special adviser on cities to then-Prime Minister Paul Martin
  • Nov 2007: awarded an Honourary Doctorate from UBC
  • has published three books:
    • A Measure of Defiance (1996)
    • Plan B: One Man’s Journey from Tragedy to Triumph (2003)
    • City Making in Paradise (2007)
  • Feb 2009: Appointed Associate Director of the UBC Continuing Studies Centre for Sustainability,

In summary, in my extensive research1, I was not able to any reference to anything that he actually did as Premier.  I’m gathering, based on the stuff he’s doing now, that he did something good for cities and sustainability, but I’ll be damned if I can find any information on what he actually did2


Image credits: Photo of Mike Harcourt at Simon Fraser University’s Harbour Centre on June 14, 2007 posted by Richard Eriksson on Flickr.

References:

Footnotes:

  1. i.e., two minutes of Googling []
  2. I mean beyond his National Speaker’s Bureau bio, which says, “focus on conservation and sustainable development – and his resolve to contribute to the transformation of cities and communities around the world” – i.e., doesn’t actually say anything. []

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