Mike de Jong

Canadian politician

De Jong was born to Dutch parents who immigrated to Canada after Canadian soldiers liberated the Netherlands in World War II. At age eight, he and his family moved to a farm in the District of Matsqui in British Columbia. He attended Abbotsford's last single room elementary school and worked as farm labourer as an early teen. He graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa with a Bachelor of Arts degree, then attended the University of Alberta Faculty of Law, earning his law degree in 1988. He subsequently returned to Matsqui to set up a law practice, and was elected as trustee for School District 34 Abbotsford at age 26, becoming one of Canada's youngest school board members. He was regarded as very vocal on the opposition benches; he was ejected from the legislative assembly for calling then Attorney General Colin Gabelmann a "liar" and was later sued for libel by federal cabinet minister Herb Dhaliwal. In 2004, de Jong removed 70,000 hectares of land from Tree Farm Licence 44 with no compensation from the owner and against the recommendations of ministry staff; this effectively privatized what had been Crown Land without compensation to the province. The changes made allowed the wood to be exported as raw logs rather than lumber, and also allowed for eventual development of the land. The land in question was under dispute by the Hupacasath First Nation and also the Tseshaht First Nation; no consultation took place and the bands had since filed legal action. He has also been linked to other such privatizations of Crown forest land. After the 2005 election, de Jong became Minister of Labour and Citizens' Services. The following year, in a small cabinet shuffle, he became Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation. In the 2009 election, de Jong ran in the newly created riding of Abbotsford West. Following the election, in which the BC Liberals remained in office, de Jong was named Attorney General. On two occasions in 2010, de Jong stepped in as Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General while Kash Heed was under investigation for campaign violations. That same year, de Jong faced controversy when he approved the payment of $6 million in legal fees for Liberal Party insiders David Basi and Robert Virk, who pleaded guilty to charges of breach of trust and accepting benefits in connection with the sale of BC Rail in 2003. De Jong defended his actions saying the government's Legal Services Branch had recommended they not try to collect the funds since the aides did not have any money. On December 1, 2010, de Jong announced that he would seek the leadership of the BC Liberal Party to replace the outgoing Gordon Campbell, and resigned his cabinet post. During his campaign, he advocated for the provincial voting age to be lowered to 16. He placed fourth in the 2011 leadership election, which was won by Christy Clark.

In Clark's initial cabinet, de Jong was named Minister of Health. He was appointed Minister of Finance on September 5, 2012, and in addition briefly served as Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism between March and June 2013. De Jong was re elected in 2017 and remained as Minister of Finance. He finished his term as minister that July,

With Christy Clark resigning as leader, de Jong announced on September 26, 2017 his intention to run in the 2018 BC Liberal leadership election. His campaign placed an emphasis on education, including proposals to extend full day kindergarten to four year olds, and to provide $500 each year to a child's registered education savings plan. On January 18, 2018, de Jong and rival candidate Andrew Wilkinson announced they had struck a deal to support each other as their second ballot choices. De Jong placed fifth in a field of six, but his alliance with Wilkinson was critical to the latter's victory. He was re elected in 2020, and was named shadow minister for Attorney General. On April 17, 2024, he announced he was seeking the Conservative nomination for Abbotsford South Langley.