Everyone Has a John Horgan Story

It seems almost everyone has a story about former B.C. premier John Horgan, who died Tuesday at the age of 65.

Like Ravi Kahlon, the MLA for Delta North. Not long after he was first elected, his son was struggling with having his father away so much, a challenge he mentioned to Horgan.

“I think it was two weeks later he showed up at my house unexpected, with an RCMP detail, and started playing Pokémon and playing Lego with my kid,” Kahlon said.

“The next day my son said to me, ‘I understand now why you’re in Victoria, because you have to help people. Uncle John came to tell me that,’” he said.

“That’s the way he was. He didn’t need to. He had a lot of important things he had to take care of, but he took the time out to do that for his colleagues.”

Horgan’s family shared the news of his death Tuesday.

“Our hearts are broken to announce the passing of our beloved husband, father and friend,” his family said in a statement on social media. “John passed away peacefully this morning at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria.... He was surrounded by family, friends and love in his final days.”

The statement said “the well-being of British Columbia and everyone in it was everything to him” and closed with the words “Live long and prosper” from Star Trek, a Horgan favourite.

Horgan, who at the time of his death was Canada’s ambassador to Germany, took an unusual path to becoming B.C.’s 36th premier, a position he held from 2017 to 2022.

He often told the story of how he was raised by a single mother, Alice May Horgan, who was left on her own with four children when his father, Pat Horgan, died. Horgan was 18 months old when his father died.

It was important that people understood where he was coming from, Horgan told The Tyee in a 2014 interview after the NDP acclaimed him as leader.

“I do come from very modest means and difficult times, and I had a couple of off-the-rails experiences as a teenager that I was able to recover from. Not everybody gets that chance.”

Born and raised in the Victoria region, Horgan attended Reynolds Secondary School in Saanich. He said he failed science, math, typing and French in Grade 9.

“I didn’t show up,” he said. “I was 14 years old and smoking cigarettes and not watching Captain Kangaroo, as the old song goes. I was running with the wrong crowd, and the coach of the basketball team kind of grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and said, ‘You can probably do better if you put your mind to it.’”

With help he found focus through sports, became student council president in his last year of high school, earned a master’s degree at university, worked various jobs, was first elected as an MLA in 2005 and became leader of the BC NDP, then premier.

His experience instilled a strong belief in the importance of support for families and public services, knowing the difference they could make.

“There was no insurance of any consequence when my father died, so my mom was left to her own devices — no job, no driver’s licence — and we all got through that, and it was because our neighbours helped us.”

Kahlon said Horgan was a remarkable man with an ability to connect with people across political lines. “It didn’t matter if you were left, right, if you were up or down, people appreciated John, they appreciated the way he handled being premier, the way he handled fighting for issues and communities. It’s a sad day.”

Premier David Eby said Horgan’s legacy as premier was profound, taking the NDP into government after 16 years in opposition, then making progress on numerous issues. He singled out the move towards bringing the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into B.C.’s laws.

“He was accessible, he was fun, and funny,” Eby said, adding that Horgan had been a coach and a mentor to him. “He brought a spirit of fun to his work that was infectious.”

Horgan also had a quick temper that colleagues and reporters sometimes received the brunt of.

“If you hadn’t been yelled at by John Horgan, you hadn’t truly worked with him,” said Eby. “I truly worked with him.”

Adrian Dix, an MLA since 2005 who first worked with Horgan when both were NDP staff members in the 1990s, joked that Horgan would want to be remembered as an ace shooter on the basketball court.

Of the many files they worked on together, he highlighted the NDP government’s move to bring health-care workers back into the public service after the BC Liberal government had allowed their jobs to be contracted out.

Other legacies of Horgan’s time as premier include the banning of corporate and union political donations, the continued construction of the Site C dam on the Peace River, the building of the LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, and a strategy to protect old-growth forests.

Dix referred to Horgan as a great friend with whom he’d had the occasional argument, and said his thoughts were with Horgan’s wife Ellie and their sons Evan and Nate. “It’s a huge loss for all of us and magnified by 10 for them.”

Mike Farnworth, the MLA for Port Coquitlam, fought back tears as he reflected on 36 years working with Horgan. “He was someone who really loved this province and really loved the people of this province and was a wonderful friend,” he said.

“The ability to connect with people. It didn’t matter who you were, what you did, he was able to connect with you, sit down, have a conversation, a beer, whatever, whether you agreed with his politics or you didn’t agree with his politics, he just had this ability to connect with people.”

Horgan remained grounded in his community, continuing to live on an average street in the Victoria suburb of Langford and maintain friendships with people who weren’t involved in politics.

“I consider myself and my friends to be regular people,” Horgan once said. “I live in a modest home on a cul-de-sac. My one neighbour’s a faller, a guy down the road’s a drywaller, got a couple retired folks, a firefighter. You know, just a cross-section of life on my street.”

In opposition, before his commute was made by car with RCMP security, he would take the bus back and forth to the legislature and said he would conduct rolling focus groups with fellow passengers.

The current representative for Langford-Highlands, Ravi Parmar, was in Grade 5 when he first met Horgan and said he wouldn’t have become an MLA if not for his influence. “Little did I know how much that interaction at a young age would mean to me,” he said.

“I’ve worked every day over the past year and a half to try and fill his shoes in Langford, but there’s no way that you can fill those massive Doc Martens.”

Parmar said Horgan touched many people’s lives and he was thankful for Horgan’s friendship and to have been able to spend some time with him in recent weeks.

“The message he had for me, and that I know he would have for the caucus and for everyone, is it’s not about one person; it’s about the people of B.C.,” Parmar said. “That was his final advice to me just a couple of days ago.”

Horgan, who survived bladder cancer in 2008 and throat cancer in 2021, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in June.

The flag at the parliament buildings in Victoria is at half-mast to honour Horgan and there will be opportunities for public condolences. The timing of services has yet to be announced.