Andrew Wilkinson

Andrew Wilkinson is an Australian-born Canadian politician.

He is the former leader of the British Columbia Liberal Party, and served as the leader of British Columbia's Official Opposition.

The Private Training Act (Bill 7) repealed the 37th Parliament's Private Career Training Institutions Act and moved regulation to the Private Training Institutions Branch of the Ministry of Advanced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.

He received his LL.B. from Dalhousie University in 1987 and was called to the British Columbia bar in 1988.

Wilkinson’s legal practice was in litigation, including defending doctors, with numerous trials and appeals, including the Supreme Court of Canada.

Wilkinson was president of the BC Civil Liberties Association and the BC Mountaineering Club in the early 1990s.

Wilkinson served as the president of the BC Liberal Party from 1998 to 2001.

He also served as deputy minister for Intergovernmental Relations in the Premier's Office for two years from 2001 to 2003.

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.

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.

In 2003, he was transferred to the position of deputy minister for the Ministry of Small Business & Economic Development.

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.

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 Federal MP Joyce Murray and briefly as BC campaign co-chair to Michael Ignatieff's federal election campaign.

He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2008.

He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2013 provincial election and re-elected in 2017 and 2020.

He represented the electoral district of Vancouver-Quilchena.

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.

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 the role, he was responsible for the selloff of government land.

Amongst the sales was 5750 Panorama Drive in Surrey to Fairborne Lands LTD that had been previously earmarked as the site for a new hospital by premier Gordon Campbell.

Wilkinson also oversaw the designing of the BC Services Card to combine drivers' licenses and CareCards.

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.

On December 17, 2014, Premier Clark had Wilkinson and Amrik Virk exchanged Ministries 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 (Bill 4) merged chartered accountants, certified general accountants and management accountants into one professional regulatory body.

Wilkinson served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General from June 12, 2017, until an NDP minority government was sworn in the following month.

Wilkinson led the BC Liberals during the 2020 British Columbia general election under the slogan Restore Confidence, Rebuild BC. The platform was centred on a temporary suspension of sales tax, expanded child care and seniors' housing, expanded infrastructure spending, and introducing competition in the auto insurance market.

The campaign was marked by controversies, including the ouster of Liberal candidate Laurie Throness, who compared birth control to eugenics, and sexist remarks made by Liberal candidate Jane Thornthwaite towards NDP MLA Bowinn Ma.

Wilkinson resigned as leader following the election, in which the BC Liberals lost 14 seats.

On November 23, 2020, the BC Liberal Caucus elected Shirley Bond as interim leader.

On February 17, 2022, he resigned from the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia to allow for newly-elected BC Liberal leader Kevin Falcon to run in a by-election.

Wilkinson was born in Brisbane, Australia.

His family migrated to Canada when he was four and he grew up in Kamloops.

Wilkinson attended medical school at the University of Alberta.

Three years into medical 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.