William Bruce Strachan (Bruce Strachan) (born July 22, 1941) is a former politician in the Canadian province of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

. Strachan was a school trustee and board chair, a regional district director, as well as a three-term MLA and cabinet minister. He served in the

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is the deliberative assembly of the Parliament of British Columbia, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The Legislative Assembly meets in Victoria. Members are elected from provincial ...

from 1979 to 1991, as a Social Credit member for the constituency of Prince George South. After working as a professional musician in the United States of America, Strachan and his wife moved to

Prince George, British Columbia Prince George is the largest city in northern British Columbia, Canada, with a population of 74,004 in the metropolitan area. It is often called the province's "northern capital" or sometimes the "spruce capital" because it is the hub city for ...

in 1966 he and enrolled as an adult student at the

College of New Caledonia The College of New Caledonia (CNC) is a post-secondary educational institution that serves the residents of the Central Interior of British Columbia. This region has a population of about 145,000, and it encompasses three school districts: #28 ( ...

. After graduating, he became an Information Officer for the college.

Political career

In 1976, he was elected to the local school board where he later became the board chair. In 1979, he won his first provincial election campaign in the new constituency of

Prince George South Prince George South was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia beginning with the election of 1979. It was created from Fort George and a small part of Cariboo. It was abolished prior to the 1991 election into ...

. In 1988, as Minister of State for the Cariboo, he secured $100,000 for an initial feasibility study for the creation of the

University of Northern British Columbia The University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) is a small, research-intensive public university in British Columbia, Canada. The main campus is located in Prince George, with additional campuses located in Prince Rupert, Terrace, Quesnel, an ...

(UNBC). In 1990, as Minister of Advanced Education, Training and Technology, Strachan approved a $138 million budget to create the new campus for UNBC. After provincial politics, he was elected to Prince George City Council as a city councillor and served as a director for the

Regional District of Fraser-Fort George In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

. In 2009, he was a director of the No

BC-STV BC-STV is the proposed voting system recommended by the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform in October 2004 for use in British Columbia, and belongs to the single transferable vote family of voting systems. BC-STV was supported by a majority ...

Campaign Society that advocated for a No vote in the referendum about a new

Single Transferable Vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

ballot system in the province.

References

1941 births British Columbia municipal councillors British Columbia school board members British Columbia Social Credit Party MLAs Musicians from British Columbia Living people Members of the Executive Council of British Columbia Politicians from Winnipeg {{BritishColumbia-MLA-stub