David A. Anderson, (born August 16, 1937) is a former

Canadian cabinet The Cabinet of Canada (french: Cabinet du Canada) is a body of ministers of the Crown that, along with the Canadian monarch, and within the tenets of the Westminster system, forms the government of Canada. Chaired by the prime minister, the Ca ...

minister. Anderson was born in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

. He was educated at Victoria College,

Aiglon College Aiglon College is a private co-educational boarding school in Switzerland, broadly modelled on British boarding school lines. It is an independent, non-profit school located in the Swiss Alps. It is located 60 km from Lausanne in the alpine vil ...

and at the

University of British Columbia Faculty of Law , mottoeng = Let justice be done though the heavens fall , type = Public Law School , endowment = , head_label = Dean , head = Ngai Pindell , established = , city = Vancouver , state = Br ...

; he graduated in 1962 with a LLB. During his UBC days Anderson won a silver medal for rowing in the 1960 Olympic Games, and a silver medal in the Pan American Games in Chicago in 1959. He was also a pilot in the University Reserve of the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

. Anderson served as a foreign service officer in the

Department of External Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

between 1962 and 1968. His posts included

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

(International Supervisory And Truce Commissions) 1963–64, Assistant Canadian Trade Commissioner in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, 1964–1967, and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Desk Officer in Ottawa 1967–68. In Hong Kong, Anderson attended the Institute of Oriental Studies of the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...

and obtained the British Foreign Officer Higher Standard Certificate in

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

. He was elected Liberal MP for the constituency of

Esquimalt—Saanich Esquimalt—Saanich was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1953 to 1988. This riding was created in 1952 from parts of Nanaimo riding. It was abolished in 1 ...

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...

in the 1968 federal election. Four years later he switched to provincial politics, and was elected leader of the

provincial Liberal Party Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

(April 1972), then the third party in the provincial legislature with 5 out of 55 seats. Although elected himself in the 1972 election, representing the constituency of Victoria, the Liberal Party did not increase its seat total. Anderson served as Member of the Legislative Assembly until his defeat in December 1975. During this period of elected office Anderson was prominent in representing Canadian concerns over offshore oil drilling, pipeline developments in Northern Canada, and oil tanker traffic between Alaska and the Lower 48 states. Between 1976 and 1984, Anderson worked as an environmental consultant and adjunct professor at the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary instit ...

's School of Administration, where he taught in the fields of constitutional and administrative law, and environmental policy. His environmental work focused on coastal and wetland protection and

marine pollution Marine pollution occurs when substances used or spread by humans, such as industrial waste, industrial, agricultural pollution, agricultural and municipal solid waste, residential waste, particle (ecology), particles, noise, excess carbon dioxid ...

from oil exploration and transportation. Anderson was appointed as a member of the Immigration Appeal Board for a 10-year term in 1984. He served from March 1, 1984, until December 31, 1988, when the board was dissolved. In the 1993 federal general election Anderson re-entered elected politics. He was elected MP for Victoria and retained this position for three subsequent elections, ending when he retired from politics in January 2006. During this period, he served in the cabinet of Prime Minister

Jean Chrétien Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...

as Minister of National Revenue (1993–95), Minister of Transport (1995–97), and Minister of Fisheries and Oceans (1997–99). He also was appointed the regional political minister for British Columbia, which he retained until 2002. Anderson's time in the fisheries portfolio was marked by considerable controversy with the commercial fishing industry as he worked for strict conservation measures to protect fish stocks. These measures including a complete ban on the killing of

Coho salmon The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". The scientific species name i ...

in 1998. After six years of previous failures, he succeeded in getting an agreement with the United States under the Pacific Salmon Treaty to conserve salmon stocks and to end the destructive competitive fishing by the US and Canadian commercial fleets. In the

cabinet shuffle A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the Head of State changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in parlia ...

of 1999, Chrétien appointed Anderson

Environment Minister An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of the environment) is a cabinet position charged with protecting the natural environment and promoting wildlife conservation. The areas associated with the duties of an ...

. He served in that post for the following five years, making him the longest serving Canadian environment minister. In this period Anderson's work largely centered on the Rio Summit conventions on biodiversity and climate change. He was successful in getting the

Species at Risk Act The ''Species at Risk Act'' (SARA) (the ''Act'') is a piece of Canadian federal legislation which became law in Canada on December 12, 2002. It is designed to meet one of Canada's key commitments under the International Convention on Biological D ...

passed by Parliament and signed into law (2004), and, despite strong objections from the governments of

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

and

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and the federal Official Opposition, in securing Canadian ratification of the

Kyoto Protocol The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (part ...

in December 2002. Other initiatives involved improving air and water quality and established improved federal provincial cooperation on environmental issues. In international work, Anderson was the first Canadian elected as president of the governing council of the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...

, a post he held for two years. He took a prominent part in the G8 and OECD Environment Minister's meetings. Anderson was dropped from cabinet by Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2004 and did not run in the 2006 election. In February 2007 he was named director of the

Guelph Institute for the Environment Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Welli ...

, from which he retired in 2010. Anderson has received a number of environmental awards, including the John Fraser Award for Environmental Achievement from the

Sierra Club of Canada Sierra Club Canada (SCC) is a Canadian environmental organization. Terry A. Simmons incorporated the Sierra Club BC in 1969, affiliating the local organization with the Sierra Club of the United States. Several members of the club were promine ...

(2005), the Dr. Andrew Thompson Award from

West Coast Environmental Law West Coast Environmental Law is an environmental law and public advocacy organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada that works to shape environmental policies in British Columbia and in Canada. It is known for its involvement in gr ...

for his lifetime contributions to the environment and sustainability in British Columbia (2004), and the 50th anniversary International Conservation Award (1998) from the

Atlantic Salmon Federation The Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) is an international conservation organization established in 1948. The Federation is dedicated to the conservation, protection and restoration of wild Atlantic salmon and the ecosystems on which their well bein ...

. He was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in laws by the

in 2007, and an honorary doctorate of science from

Wilfrid Laurier University Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Brantford and Milton. The newer Brantford and Milton campuses are not considered satellite campuses ...

in 2009. He was appointed an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

in 2010 and named to the

Order of British Columbia The Order of British Columbia (french: Ordre de la Colombie-Britannique) is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Instituted in 1989 by Lieutenant Governor David Lam, on the advice of the Cabinet under Premier B ...

in 2018. Anderson is married with two children.

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* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, David 1937 births Living people British Columbia Liberal Party MLAs Canadian Anglicans Canadian Ministers of Transport Canadian sportsperson-politicians Lawyers in British Columbia Leaders of the British Columbia Liberal Party Liberal Party of Canada MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from British Columbia Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada Olympic medalists in rowing Olympic rowers of Canada Olympic silver medalists for Canada Officers of the Order of Canada Pan American Games silver medalists for Canada Politicians from Victoria, British Columbia Rowers at the 1960 Summer Olympics Rowers from Victoria, British Columbia Members of the 26th Canadian Ministry Members of the 27th Canadian Ministry Canadian male rowers Peter A. Allard School of Law alumni Pan American Games medalists in rowing Rowers at the 1959 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1959 Pan American Games Alumni of Aiglon College

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