Biography
Christy Clark was officially sworn in as the Premier of British Columbia on March 14th, 2011.
Since becoming Premier, Christy has led the charge to advance her mandate of putting families first, of defending and creating jobs, and of creating a more open government.
Christy was born and raised in Burnaby by her mother Mavis, a family counsellor, and her father Jim, a school teacher and guidance counsellor. Like her parents, Christy has an extensive record of community involvement and leadership for British Columbia's families.
After graduating from Burnaby Senior Secondary, Christy studied at Simon Fraser University, the University of Edinburgh, and at the Université de la Sorbonne in Paris.
In 1996, she was elected to the British Columbia legislature where she distinguished herself as a passionate champion for families. This commitment continued when the BC Liberals formed government and she was appointed Minister of Education and Deputy Premier in 2001.
Christy took a break from politics in 2005 to spend more time with her family. She quickly established herself as a columnist with the Vancouver Province newspaper and commentator on CTV Newsnet. In 2007, she began the "Christy Clark Show" on CKNW radio.
Christy has earned a number of awards, including the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for her work in politics, and for creating the anti-bullying campaign "Pink Shirt Day", she was named the 2009 Woman of the Year in BC by the Consumer Choice Awards.
Christy lives in Vancouver with her son.
Some of the key accomplishments under her leadership so far include:
Canada Starts Here: The BC Job Plan
We have a relentless focus on fighting to strengthen the economy for B.C. families. The BC Jobs Plan is a comprehensive package of policies that encourage businesses to create jobs and protects the jobs we already have. The BC Jobs Plan is called “Canada Starts Here” because we are taking a leadership position in Canada. This is possible because of our diverse people and our geography, both supported by a strong foundation of fiscal prudence.
- In November, Premier Clark led the largest international trade mission in B.C.'s history to China and India, accompanied by 350 representatives from businesses, industry organizations, and community groups. Durring the trade mission, more than 60 agreements and partnerships were signed with a dollar value exceeding $1.4 billion.
- A Natural Gas Strategy that is starting a brand new LNG industry and will attract $18 billion of investments.
- We are ahead of schedule in meeting our targets for reducing the backlog of notices of work for mining by 80 per cent by the end of August 2012
- Worked with Seaspan to support a winning bid that secured the $8 billion federal ship-building contract
- Broke the logjam to get the Evergreen Line underway to reduce commute times, creating 8,000 new jobs
- Rio Tinto is investing $2.7 billion to modernize its Kitimat smelter, marking the largest private sector investment in B.C.'s history
Click here to read the Six-Month Progress Report on the BC Jobs Plan.
We are working across government to help make life easier for B.C. families and give them more
opportunities for quality time together.
These initiatives run across government and include:
- $10,000 First Time Homebuyer Bonus
- New Children’s Fitness Credit and Children’s Arts Credit
- Increasing the minimum wage and cancelling the training wage
- Establishing the Family Day holiday to start in 2011
- Restoring $15 million in community arts and sports grants
- Funding to build 19 new schools
- Free coverage of nicotine cessation products
- Establishing the B.C. Seniors' Home Renovation Tax Credit
We are working to make British Columbia the most open provincial government in Canada.
The important steps we’ve taken so far include:
- Establishing an Auditor General for Local Government to help municipalities find cost savings and keep property taxes under control
- Establishing an Independent Investigation Office led by Richard Rosenthal to provide independent oversight of our police
- Open data initiative – posting 2,700 data sets online, with more to come
- Released reviews of BC Hydro and Community Living BC in their entirety, even parts that were critical of government
- Town hall meetings across B.C.
- Quarterly reports to the province via webcast
- Greatest percentage of women in cabinet – 44 per cent of ministers
