Andrew Petter

Background and education Andrew Petter was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1953, and grew up in the adjacent suburb of Oak Bay. His grandfather Ernest Petter was an English industrialist who unsuccessfully ran for the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on three occasions before moving to the Vancouver Island town of Comox in 1938; he then lived for a while in Saanich before moving back to the UK in 1954.

Andrew's Jewish mother Elizabeth graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in the 1930s, then joined the Tanzgruppe Bodenwieser as a dancer. She was on tour in London when she met Ernest Petter's son Gordon; the couple married in Vienna and lived there until the Anschluss. where Gordon Petter taught history at the now defunct Notre Dame University College. He subsequently attended Cambridge University on a Commonwealth Scholarship,

Career Petter briefly worked at the Saskatchewan Department of Justice, serving as the Constitutional Branch's adviser. His constituency work included establishing the Galloping Goose Regional Trail for cyclists.

He was named Minister of Aboriginal Affairs in November 1991 by Premier Harcourt. In that role, he worked alongside Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, federal Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Tom Siddon and Harcourt in the First Nations Task Force, which created and put into effect the Treaty Commission Act in British Columbia in May 1993. He then served as Minister of Forests from September 1993 to February 1996,

After Glen Clark took over as premier in February 1996, Petter was appointed Minister of Health, Minister Responsible for Seniors, and Minister Responsible for Intergovernmental Relations. That June he was named Minister of Finance and Corporate Relations, while holding on to the intergovernmental portfolio and dropping the health and seniors file. adding the role of Minister Responsible for Youth in August 1999 after Clark resigned and Dan Miller took over as premier and interim NDP leader.

Following Ujjal Dosanjh's election as new NDP leader, Petter was named Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Human Rights in February 2000. He declined to run again in the 2001 provincial election, and was dropped from the cabinet in November 2000, replaced in both roles by Graeme Bowbrick.

Higher education Subsequent to his career in politics, he served as dean of the University of Victoria's faculty of law from 2001 until 2008 (the first year as acting dean),

He was named president and vice-chancellor of Simon Fraser University in January 2010,

Other Service From 2021 to 2024, Petter served as chair of the board of directors of Innovate BC, a provincial Crown agency responsible for supporting innovation and growth in the technology sector in British Columbia. From 2024 to 2026, he served as a director of Coast Capital Savings Federal Credit Union. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Central Asia and as a member of the Advisory Board of the UIIN (University Industry Innovation Network).

Honours and awards

Other distinctions 2002: Honorary citizen award from the City of Victoria 2020: Honorary doctorate (LLD) from Kwantlen Polytechnic University 2022: Honorary doctorate (LLD) from Simon Fraser University 2023: Honorary doctorate (LLD) from the University of Victoria 2024: King Charles III Coronation Medal

Selected publications "Private Rights/Public Wrongs: The Liberal Lie of the Charter" in the University of Toronto Law Journal, 1995 "The Politics of the Charter", Supreme Court Law Review, 1986 "Rights in Conflict: The Dilemma of Charter Legitimacy", University of British Columbia Law Review, 1989 "Federalism and the Myth of the Federal Spending Power", Canadian Bar Review, 1989

Electoral results