BIOGRAGHY for William Nick Vander Zalm
I was born in Holland and came to Canada at the age of 12, shortly after the 2nd World war.
My father was a flower bulb salesman and got stranded in Canada for the duration of the war. Mother raised seven children during very difficult times and could not receive any communication from my father for almost six years.
Soon after the war my father came back to Holland and started the emigration process for the family. In early 1947, we arrived in Bradner, B.C.. We arrived on a Tuesday at noon and early the following morning we were all in the fields picking daffodils.
I completed High School in Abbotsford and had hoped to continue for a law degree, but my father suffered a heart attack and I was chosen, at the age of 18, to take over and continue the business. It was on one of my very first selling trips that I met the girl of my life, Lillian, who became my bride and love for life.
It was only a year later that my very best customer, Mr. Art Knapp, also suffered a heart attack and came to see me to request that I take over his business. He became a great friend and taught me a great deal before I finally took the stage.
At the age of 29, after heading up a group of neighbours to prevent a park, called Invergary Park, from being turned into a gravel pit by the Municipality, I was convinced to run for a seat on the Municipal Council. I lost the first time but got the taste of it and was elected the following year.
I served four years as a councilor and then decided to run for Mayor. At 34 years of age, I was elected the youngest Mayor in Canada’s history.
In 1975, Mr. Bill Bennett, the then leader of the Social Credit party, approached me to run provincially. I was elected and appointed as the Minster responsible for Social Services. A Ministry plagued with huge deficits, which I was soon able to turn into a Ministry with a surplus.
There’s a cost to being successful, the Ministry of Municipal affairs and Transit, had a problem getting the Mayors of the region to agree to the best type of transit system for Vancouver and surrounds. The then Mayor of Vancouver wanted an on ground system but I saw huge problems with it, in an already fairly densely developed area. We would see a train crossing many, many streets all of which would need traffic control, lights and gates. I settled the differences when I told them that we would only finance a Canadian Elevated transit technology, called “Sky Train.”
The Ministry suffering most from disorganized spending, a ministry with out of control spending, was the Ministry of Education and Higher education. Premier Bennett now gave me a new job, straightening out another Ministry.
By 1983 the Ministry’s finances were under control and I advised the premier that I would not be in the running at the next election as I wanted to work with Lillian who had taken on managing all the business undertakings.
My retirement from politics was short lived. In 1986, though the campaign for Leader of the Social Credit party was half over, I was convinced to take on another campaign. In August of that year I was elected Premier of the Province.
Though the finances of the Province had been well managed by Premier Bennett, I inherited a big deficit. In only two years we reduced debt, balanced the budget and had established a “rainy day fund” for when times were tougher. Wall Street declared B.C. as having the best economy in North America and the best managed financially.
I learned, one not so nice thing about government, “don’t try to make changes to the system and government without knowing that there are consequences.” In the end, the real power lies not with the politicians, the real power lies in a bureaucracy and the many “special interest groups”, the establishment that stays as politicians come and go. They will successfully fight anyone that tries to bring change. Ironically as I’m typing this message, we see this being played out in the U.S.A.