Bill Vander Zalm

William Nicholas Vander Zalm (born Wilhelmus Nicholaas Theodore Marie van der Zalm; May 29, 1934) is a Dutch-born Canadian entrepreneur and politician.

He emigrated to Canada after World War II, settling in the Fraser Valley in 1947.

After completing high school, he sold tulip bulbs and ultimately established himself in the nursery and gardening business.

Vander Zalm was elected an alderman of Surrey in 1965 and served as the city's mayor from 1969 to 1975.

He sought election to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1968 federal election as a Liberal in Surrey.

He lost by 4,445 votes.

His tenure was marked by his crackdown on welfare "deadbeats" (until the early 1970s, welfare in BC was a municipal responsibility).

Vander Zalm was originally a supporter of both the Liberal Party of Canada and the BC Liberal Party.

He was also a candidate at the 1972 provincial Liberal leadership convention, where he lost to David Anderson.

He joined the BC Social Credit Party in 1974.

Vander Zalm was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 1975 election for the riding of Surrey (he would later represent Richmond after the 1986 election).

The Socreds won back power after a three-year hiatus.

He served in the cabinet of Premier Bill Bennett as minister of human resources from 1975 to 1978, where he continued his crusade against welfare fraud.

On June 22, 1978, the Victoria Daily Times published a political cartoon by Bob Bierman that portrayed the Minister of Human Resources as a grinning sadist, deliberately pulling the wings off flies.

Vander Zalm launched legal action for libel, Vander Zalm v. Times Publishers.

Justice Craig Munroe of the BC Supreme Court awarded Vander Zalm $3,500 in damages.

Vander Zalm also served as Minister of Municipal Affairs and Transit from 1978 to 1981 and as Minister of Education from 1981 to 1983.

The decision was overturned by the BC Court of Appeal in 1980, which was praised by journalists as a victory for free speech.

The original cartoon was purchased by the National Archives of Canada for $350.

In 1983, Vander Zalm, as minister of education, personally intervened in the Smithers school board to suspend Madeleine Sauve without pay.

Madeleine Sauve distributed, without the permission of either parents or the local school board, a questionnaire concerning "mutual masturbation, oral sex, use of pornography and prostitution" to a class of Grade 8 students in Smithers.

In 1984, he bought Fantasy Garden World, a theme park.

The same year, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Vancouver for the candidate for the Non-Partisan Association.

He lost to Mike Harcourt, who was later the provincial NDP leader during most of Vander Zalm's tenure as premier.

He served as the 28th premier of British Columbia from 1986 to 1991.

Wilhelmus Nicholaas Theodore Marie van der Zalm was born and raised in Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands.

In 1986, Premier Bennett announced he was retiring.

Vander Zalm attracted considerable attention as he considered whether he would run for the leadership of the Social Credit Party.

He generated more press from the race than the other candidates did.

At the party's convention in Whistler, British Columbia, he prevailed over 11 other candidates by winning on the fourth ballot.

He was sworn in as premier just a month before the 1986 election.

During the subsequent provincial election campaign, "Vandermania" swept BC, and the Socreds easily won another term over the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP).

Vander Zalm promised a fresh start after the confrontational Bennett years.

Once gaining a seat in the legislature, Vander Zalm filled most of the cabinet slots with MLAs who had languished on the backbench under Bennett.

Vander Zalm decided to release the normally-secret list of cabinet appointments to two Vancouver Sun reporters hours before the official announcement was to be made.

Under his watch, the Socred government took a more social conservative hue.

This didn’t sit well with more moderate Socreds, who began drifting to the previously moribund Liberals-a trend that would haunt Vander Zalm's successors later.

On July 7, 1987, during the first session of the 34th Parliament, Vander Zalm's health minister Peter Dueck introduced the Health Statutes Amendment Act (Bill 34).

This bill specified quarantine procedures for individuals with “serious reportable communicable disease." The bill was met with serious backlash and protest from HIV/AIDS activism groups like ACT UP, the Vancouver Lesbian Connection, and the Vancouver Persons With AIDS Coalition. The mobilization by activists in protest of the bill led to the formation of the Coalition for Responsible Health Legislation (CRHL) by Vancouver-based AIDS activists that led several actions for protest, but also education like safer sex workshops focused on preventing HIV transmission. The bill received Royal Assent on December 17, 1987, and was passed into law. The protests continued, but effort from the BC Civil Liberties Association shifted to the modification of the bill, rather than discarding it completely.

The government of Premier Bill Vander Zalm refused to fund the 1990 Gay Games in Vancouver and cited inappropriate usage of public resources.