John Joseph Horgan (August 7, 1959 – November 12, 2024) was a Canadian politician and diplomat who served as the 36th premier of British Columbia from 2017 to 2022 and the ambassador of Canada to Germany from 2023 to 2024. He led the British Columbia New Democratic Party from 2014 to 2022, guiding the party to government after 16 years in opposition. A member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (MLA) from 2005 to 2023, he represented the riding of Langford-Juan de Fuca.
Horgan was born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia. He attended Reynolds Secondary School in Saanich, before moving to Peterborough, Ontario, to attend Trent University, where he met his wife, Ellie, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1983. Horgan studied in Australia at the University of Sydney, earning a master's in history in 1986 before he returned to Canada to work in politics and public policy. Horgan was elected to the BC Legislative Assembly in 2005.
In June 2006, he was appointed the Opposition critic for energy and mines in NDP leader Carole James's shadow cabinet, having previously served as the Opposition critic for education. In January 2011, he announced his candidacy for leadership of the BC NDP in the 2011 leadership election, finishing third. Following the leadership election, he was appointed the Official Opposition critic for Energy, and Opposition house leader.
On March 17, 2014, he announced his candidacy in the 2014 leadership election, with the slogan "Real Leadership. For All BC". During the campaign, he talked at length about the necessity of balancing the need for jobs and resource development while protecting British Columbia's natural environment. Horgan was acclaimed to the position on May 1, 2014, and was officially inaugurated as party leader on May 5, 2014.
In the 2017 provincial election held on May 9, 2017, Premier Christy Clark's BC Liberal government was reduced to 43 seats, one seat short of a majority. On May 29, 2017, it was announced that the NDP and Green Party of British Columbia had reached a confidence and supply agreement in which the Greens would support an NDP minority government for four years. After the legislature was recalled, Clark sought its confidence in the Liberal government. Following a non-confidence motion on June 29, 2017, which was won (44–42) by the combined votes of the NDP and Green members, Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon turned down Clark's request for a snap election and invited the NDP to form a minority government. Subsequently, Horgan succeeded Clark as the premier of British Columbia. Horgan was the province's first NDP premier since Ujjal Dosanjh in 2001.
On September 21, 2020, Horgan called a snap election that was held on October 24. On November 8, with the final vote count completed, the NDP won a record 57 seats with the highest share of the popular vote in the party's history and formed a majority government for the first time since the 1996 general election. The election result made Horgan British Columbia's first two-term NDP premier. During his second term, Horgan became the longest serving BC NDP premier in the province's history.
On June 28, 2022, Horgan announced that he would be stepping down as premier and NDP leader once a new leader had been chosen. Horgan was succeeded by David Eby on November 18, 2022. On November 1, 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Horgan would be appointed Canada's ambassador to Germany. Horgan presented his credentials to the German president on December 8. He served in the position until his death from cancer in November 2024.
Horgan was born on August 7, 1959, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, the son of Alice May (née Clutterbuck) and Pat Horgan. Horgan was 18 months old when his father died, and he and his three siblings were raised by their mother. He worked multiple jobs to save money for university, including at a pulp mill in Ocean Falls. Horgan met his wife Ellie Horgan in 1979 while studying at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. They have two sons together. In 1983, Horgan earned a Bachelor of Arts from Trent.
He waited tables at the Keg in Victoria before earning his master's degree in history from the University of Sydney in 1986. Returning to Canada he went to Ottawa and worked as a legislative assistant to James Manly and later to Lynn Hunter. Horgan returned to Victoria in 1991 and became ministerial assistant to Dave Zirnhelt. In 1993, he was named analyst in the Policy Coordination Branch of the Ministry of Government Services, and in 1996, director at the Cabinet Policy and Communications Secretariat, Ministry of Finance and Corporate Relations. His positions from 1991 through 1998 saw him assume increasing responsibilities within government, including lead negotiator on the Columbia Basin Trust and as a participant on teams for the Columbia River Treaty and Land Use Plans. In 1998, he worked as a director in the Crown Corporations Secretariat before going on to work at Columbia Power as director of Corporate Affairs, focusing on getting Keenleyside and Brilliant dams repowered. In 1999, he was appointed chief of staff in the office of Premier Dan Miller. His last job in government was at the level of associate deputy minister working in the Ministry of Finance on energy projects. Following the change of government in 2001, Horgan created a small business that focused on policy, management, research and government liaison work. He formed a consulting company called IdeaWorks, along with former deputy minister Nancy Thompson, former NDP caucus research director Mary O'Donoghue, and two former NDP bureaucrats—Ian Reid and John Heaney—with whom he worked in the Ministry of Management Services in the 1990s, overseeing the expansion of gambling across the province. IdeaWorks was credited with developing a sophisticated campaign in 2003 by which they were successful in convincing Vancouver City Council to lift a moratorium on slot machines. In 2008, Horgan was diagnosed with bladder cancer; he was eventually declared cancer free after surgery and treatment.
Early years as MLA (2005–2014)
As the 2005 provincial election was approaching, the 45-year-old Horgan won the NDP nomination against Julie Thomas of Shawnigan Lake in the riding of Malahat-Juan de Fuca. The incumbent MLA Brian Kerr was not seeking re-election, so in the general election Horgan faced BC Liberal Cathy Basskin of Cowichan Bay, Democratic Reform BC party leader Tom Morino, Green Party candidate Steven Hurdle, and Western Canada Concept candidate Pattie O'Brien. Though Horgan won his riding, the NDP under Carole James's leadership formed the Official Opposition to the BC Liberals who formed a majority government.
Horgan was named to the NDP front bench as its education critic. He criticized the government's 2005 Teachers' Collective Agreement Act which legislated teachers into a new contract (which was later overturned after 11 years of litigation by the Supreme Court of Canada on the basis of violating the Canadian Constitution), after several months of unsuccessful collective bargaining, as "[inflaming] an already volatile situation". In June 2006, Horgan was named energy and mines critic. Horgan called for the BC Oil and Gas Commission to provide more transparent reporting after it was reported that its annual 97 percent compliance rating was near-perfect, despite 2,500 known infractions, the majority of which were rated major or serious. Following a sudden sharp increase in gasoline prices in early 2007, Horgan introduced the Retail Petroleum Consumer Protection Act as a private member bill which, if passed, would have put gasoline prices under the jurisdiction of the BC Utilities Commission, the same as electricity and natural gas. The bill was supported by an 18,000-signature petition and elicited editorial responses from Minister Neufeld and Christy Clark.
In January 2007, Horgan accused Premier Gordon Campbell of conflict-of-interest due to his owning of shares of Alcan while signing an order-in-council approving an agreement between Alcan and BC Hydro (part of the BC Liberals attempt to privatize electricity generation in BC) which was subsequently overturned by the Utilities Commission as being not in the public interest. The Ethics Commissioner cleared Campbell of wrongdoing but made a recommendation that cabinet ministers and other senior officials place their assets in blind trusts. Horgan subsequently introduced this recommendation as the private member bill Members' Conflict of Interest Amendment Act in the third and fourth sessions and a similar but more comprehensive bill, in line with the Federal Accountability Act, but they were not advanced beyond first reading.