Peter Fassbender (born 1946) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician, who was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is the deliberative assembly of the Parliament of British Columbia, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The Legislative Assembly meets in Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria. Members ar ...

in the 2013 provincial election after a career at the municipal level. He was elected to represent the electoral district of

Surrey-Fleetwood Surrey-Fleetwood is a provincial electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, established by the British Columbia electoral redistribution, 2008, ''Electoral Districts Act, 2008''. It was first contested in the 2009 British Columbia general el ...

as a member of the

British Columbia Liberal Party The British Columbia Liberal Party, often shortened to the BC Liberals, is a Centre-right politics, centre-right provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party currently forms the Official Opposition. Subsequent to the 2020 Br ...

. He was appointed by Premier

Christy Clark Christina Joan Clark (born October 29, 1965) is a former Canadian politician who was the 35th premier of British Columbia (BC), from 2011 to 2017. Clark was the second woman to be premier of BC, after Rita Johnston in 1991, and the first female ...

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 Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, Aldergrove or

Langley Langley may refer to: People * Langley (surname), a common English surname, including a list of notable people with the name * Dawn Langley Simmons (1922–2000), English author and biographer * Elizabeth Langley (born 1933), Canadian perfor ...

. He graduated from Queen Elizabeth High School in Surrey and attended the National Broadcasting School in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. He got a film librarian job at CHAN Television (now

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) and moved up the ranks to cameraman, and then producer and director. He worked for the advertising agency James Lovick in the early 1970s and eventually became a partner of Frank Palmer at the national firm DDB Canada (formerly Palmer Jarvis). A major focus of his private sector career focused on social marketing campaigns including smoking cessation projects for

Health Canada Health Canada (HC; french: Santé Canada, SC)Health Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Health (). is the Structure of the Canadian federal government#Departments, with subsidiary unit ...

and international marketing activities for

Industry Canada Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED; french: Innovation, Sciences et Développement économique Canada; french: ISDE, label=none)''Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal I ...

. In 1996 and 1997 he was reported to have done volunteer public relations work for the evangelical men's organization

Promise Keepers Promise Keepers is an Evangelical Christian parachurch organization for men. It originated in the United States, but independent branches have also been established in Canada and New Zealand. Promise Keepers describes its goal as "to bring abou ...

. He is a distant cousin of actor

Michael Fassbender Michael Fassbender (born 2 April 1977) is an Irish actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Award ...

Politics

After a failed run at a

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

nomination, Fassbender served a four-year term (1975 to 1979) during some turbulent years on the

school board. During that time, the board pursued a 'back-to-basics' approach that considered the restoration of corporal punishment and banning the novel ''

Go Ask Alice ''Go Ask Alice'' is a 1971 book about a teenage girl who develops a drug addiction at age 15 and runs away from home on a journey of self-destructive escapism. Attributed to "Anonymous", the book is in diary form, and was originally presented as ...

''. Fassbender says his approach to education has changed since the 1970s. Fassbender was elected for the first time to the city council of

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 The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

as co-chair of the municipal advisory council for

Fraser Health The Fraser Health Authority (FHA) is one of five publicly funded health authorities into which the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) is divided. It is governed by the provincial ''Health Authorities Ac ...

and as vice-chair of

TransLink Translink (or TransLink) may refer to: * TransLink (British Columbia), the public transport operator in Vancouver, Canada * Translink (Northern Ireland) Translink is the brand name of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo), a ...

's mayors council. In November 2012, the provincial government appointed Fassbender as chair of the board for the

BC Pavilion Corporation Crown corporations in Canada are government organizations with a mixture of commercial and public-policy objectives.Tupper, Allan. 2006 February 7.Crown Corporation" ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (last edited 2021 March 18). Retrieved 2021 May 1 ...

, which operates

BC Place BC Place is a multi-purpose stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Located at the north side of False Creek, it is owned and operated by the BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), a crown corporation of the province. The venue is currently ...

Stadium and the

Vancouver Convention Centre The Vancouver Convention Centre (formerly known as the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre, or VCEC) is a convention centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; it is one of Canada's largest convention centres. With the opening of the ne ...

. In addition to dealing with major renovations, the position also dealt with transparency criticism from journalist Bob Mackin. In the 2013 provincial election, he defeated three-term

NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National ...

MLA

Jagrup Brar Jagrup Brar is a Canadian politician. He is a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in British Columbia, Canada. He represented the ridings of Surrey-Panorama Ridge from 2004 to 2009 and Surrey-Fleetwood from 2009 to 2013 and since 2017 as a ...

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 The British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) is the labour union that represents all public school teachers in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It was established as an organization in 1917. Governance structure As of 2018, the BCT ...

. In addition to his ministerial duties, Fassbender sat on the Cabinet Committee on Secure Tomorrow. In the 2017 provincial election, he lost his re-election as MLA to

. In 2018, he ran for his former position as mayor of the City of Langley. He was narrowly defeated, losing to Val van den Broek by around 200 votes.

Electoral record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fassbender, Peter 1946 births Living people Advertising directors British Columbia Liberal Party MLAs Canadian librarians Canadian television directors Canadian television producers Education ministers of British Columbia West German emigrants to Canada British Columbia municipal councillors Mayors of places in British Columbia People from Langley, British Columbia (city) Members of the Executive Council of British Columbia People from Surrey, British Columbia 20th-century Canadian politicians 21st-century Canadian politicians