Peter Fassbender

Peter Fassbender
MLA for Surrey-Fleetwood
Assumed office
May 14, 2013
Preceded by Jagrup Brar
Personal details
Born (1946-12-20) December 20, 1946
Germany [1]
Political party BC Liberal
Spouse(s) Charlene
Children Two sons
Profession Politician
Website www.fassbender.ca

Peter Fassbender (born 1946) is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2013 provincial election after a career at the municipal level.[2] He was elected to represent the electoral district of Surrey-Fleetwood as a member of the British Columbia Liberal Party. He was appointed by Premier Christy Clark as Minister of Education in June 2013, then Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development & Minister Responsible for TransLink in July 2015.

Early profession

Fassbender was born in Germany and emigrated to Canada with his parents in 1952. Since then, he has lived his whole life in Surrey. He graduated from Queen Elizabeth High School in Surrey and attended the National Broadcasting School in Vancouver. He got a film librarian job at CHAN Television (now Global) and moved up the ranks to cameraman, and then producer and director. He worked for advertising agency James Lovick in the early 1970s and eventually became a partner at national firm DDB Canada (formerly Palmer Jarvis).[1][3] major focus of his private sector career focused on social marketing campaigns including smoking cessation projects for Health Canada and international marketing activities for Industry Canada.[3] In 1996 and 1997 he was reported to have done volunteer public relations work for the evangelical men's organization Promise Keepers.[4]

Politics

After a failed run at a Social Credit nomination, Fassbender served a four-year term (1975 to 1979) during some turbulent years on the Langley school board.[1] During that time, the board pursued a 'back-to-basics' approach that considered restoration of corporal punishment and banning the Go Ask Alice novel.[5] Fassbender says his approach to education has changed since the 1970s.[1]

Fassbender was elected for the first time to the city council of Langley in 2002, and then as mayor in the 2005, 2008 and 2011 civic elections. He advocated for the growing communities south of the Fraser River as co-chair of the municipal advisory council for Fraser Health and as vice-chair of TransLink's mayors council.

In November 2012, the provincial government appointed Fassbender as chair of the board for the BC Pavilion Corporation, which operates BC Place Stadium and the Vancouver Convention Centre. In addition to dealing with major renovations, the position also dealt with transparency criticism from journalist Bob Mackin.[6] In the 2013 provincial election, he defeated three-term NDP MLA Jagrup Brar and took leave from his mayoral position.

As Minister of Education, one of his priorities was to seek a 10-year labour agreement with the British Columbia Teachers' Federation.

In addition to his ministerial duties, Fassbender sits on the Cabinet Committee on Secure Tomorrow.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 St. Denis, Jen (13 June 2013). "Peter Fassbender: Higher education". Business in Vancouver (magazine). Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  2. ↑ "Riding results: Marvin Hunt and Peter Fassbender carry Liberals to victory in Surrey ridings". Vancouver Sun, May 15, 2013.
  3. 1 2 "Meet Peter". fassbender.ca. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  4. ↑ "11,000 'take charge of family' Christian men plan rally at Coliseum". Vancouver Sun, November 15, 1996.
  5. ↑ Steffenhagen, Janet (9 June 2013). "Peter Fassbender and the back-to-basics education movement in the '70s". BC Education Report. Vancouver Sun (blogs). Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  6. ↑ Stueck, Wendy (16 Nov 2012). "B.C. government names Langley mayor as PavCo chair". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  7. ↑ Legislature Bio
Provincial Government of Christy Clark
Cabinet Posts (2)
Predecessor Office Successor
Coralee Oakes Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development
July 30, 2015 – present		 '
Don McRae Minister of Education
June 10, 2013–July 30, 2015		 Mike Bernier
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.