Darryl Plecas

Darryl Plecas (born in 1951) is a Canadian politician, who was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for Abbotsford South from 2013 to 2020, and served as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 2017 to 2020. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in the 2013 provincial election as a member of the British Columbia Liberal Party;[2] after 2017 he sat as an independent after the BC Liberal Party revoked his membership for accepting his election as Speaker.[3]

Darryl Plecas
39th Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
In office September 8, 2017 – December 7, 2020
Premier	John Horgan
Lieutenant Governor	Judith Guichon Janet Austin
Preceded by	Steve Thomson
Succeeded by	Raj Chouhan
Member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly for Abbotsford South
In office May 14, 2013 – October 24, 2020
Preceded by	John van Dongen
Succeeded by	Bruce Banman
Personal details
Born	1951/1952 (age 68–69)[1] Abbotsford, British Columbia
Political party	Independent
Other political affiliations	Liberal (until 2017)
Profession	criminologist

Background

Plecas holds two degrees in Criminology from Simon Fraser University, and a doctorate in Higher Education from the University of British Columbia.[4]

Plecas is a criminologist and emeritus faculty member at the University of the Fraser Valley, where he worked for 34 years, and helped turn the criminal justice program from a college diploma into a fully credited degree program.[5][6] During this time, he also served as a federally appointed prison judge.[7]

Political career

Plecas served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General for Crime Reduction from June 10, 2013 to January 29, 2015. He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health for Seniors on January 30, 2015.[4]

At a Liberal caucus meeting held in July 2017, shortly after the government of Christy Clark lost power following its defeat in a confidence vote, Plecas called for Clark's resignation as party leader and threatened to quit the Liberal caucus and sit as an Independent MLA if she remained.

Later that month, Clark announced her resignation as leader. When Plecas revealed his role in Clark's ouster to The Abbotsford News, NDP house leader Mike Farnworth approached Plecas about becoming speaker. Had he accepted, it would have strengthened the hand of the NDP minority government.[8] Clark had unsuccessfully pressed for a new election due to the prospect of an NDP speaker having to frequently use his casting vote to break 43-43 ties.

Plecas and Farnworth negotiated in secret for much of July before reaching a deal in late August, with only Premier John Horgan and a few senior staffers aware of their talks. On September 8, 2017, he was acclaimed as Speaker.[9] On the following day, the Liberals expelled Plecas upon the request of the Abbotsford South BC Liberal riding association, and Plecas served out his term as an independent.[3][10]

Plecas later told The Province that he initially had no desire to be speaker, but changed his mind after concluding that there was no basis for Liberal claims that an NDP minority government supported by the Greens would be illegitimate. He said that with his earlier experience as a prison judge, he had the ability to be "impartial in difficult circumstances."[7]

Legislative Assembly corruption scandal

In the year after being appointed Speaker, Plecas grew suspicious of the conduct of two Permanent Officers of the B.C. Legislative Assembly: Clerk Craig James and Segeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz. He brought the matter before the Legislative Assembly Management Committee (LAMC), who urged the Speaker to publicize the corruption claims. The alleged crimes were reported to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police prior to the report's publication.[11] A criminal investigation was launched by the RCMP. The preliminary report on the issue was published on January 21, 2019.

The Plecas Report cited expenses "in the range of a million dollars"[12] to the Legislative Assembly for personal use, in the period of 20 months between April 2017 and December 2018. James and Lenz charged the legislature for a variety of luxury goods and inappropriate travel costs.[13] They were also accused of questionably awarding themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in employment benefits (e.g. retirement allowances and life insurance). Plecas raised concern about employer malpractice by James and Lenz, and attempts to conceal information related to their high expenditures. James in particular was noted for the theft of alcohol, and the contents of departing Premier Christy Clark's parliamentary vault.[14]

James and Lenz denied the allegations of the report, and both submitted a written defense to the LAMC.[15] James retired in May 2019, after an external administrative report conducted by former Supreme Court Justice Beverly McLachlin determined his actions amounted professional misconduct in several areas. Though the same report did not substantiate claims of misconduct by Lenz, a subsequent external investigation found he had lied during the McLachlin investigation, and that he had further neglected his duties as outlined by the Police Act. Shown a copy of the report days before its public release, Lenz resigned.

Electoral record

2017 election

2017 British Columbia general election: Abbotsford South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Darryl Plecas	11,683	52.48	+4.74	$64,989
	New Democratic	Jasleen Arora	6,297	28.29	+7.28	$2,892
	Green	William Aird Flavelle	3,338	15.00	–	$1,673
	Christian Heritage	Ron Gray	942	4.23	–	$686
Total valid votes			22,260	100.00
Total rejected ballots			174	0.78
Turnout			22,434	54.71
	Liberal hold		Swing		+5.08
Source: Elections BC[16]

2013 election

2013 British Columbia general election: Abbotsford South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Darryl Plecas	9,564	47.74
	Independent	John van Dongen	5,587	27.89
	New Democratic	Lakhvinder Jhaj	4,210	21.01
	Marijuana	Steve Finlay	417	2.08
	Excalibur	Patricia Smith	256	1.28
Total valid votes			20,032	100.00
Total rejected ballots			202	1.00
Turnout			20,234	55.77
	Liberal hold		Swing
Source: Elections BC[17]

References

1. http://www.abbynews.com/news/election/205838271.html
2. "Fraser Valley: End of the line for van Dongen as Liberals bolster stronghold in Fraser Valley". The Province, May 15, 2013.
3. CBC News (9 September 2017). "BC Liberals revoke Speaker Darryl Plecas' membership". Retrieved 9 September 2017.
4. "About MLA Plecas". darryplecasmla.ca. Archived from the original on 19 November 2015. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
5. "Gibson and Plecas prepare for new opportunities as Abbotsford MLAs" Archived 2014-05-15 at the Wayback Machine. Abbotsford News, May 20, 2013.
6. Ip, Stephanie. "Five things about new B.C. Speaker Darryl Plecas" (September 8, 2017). Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
7. Mike Smyth (September 9, 2017). "Darryl Plecas: Why I took the Speaker's job". The Province.
8. "Abbotsford MLA Darryl Plecas named speaker". ladysmithchronicle.com. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
9. Shaw, Rob (September 8, 2017). "MLA Darryl Plecas defects from B.C. Liberals to become Speaker". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
10. "B.C. Liberals expel Darryl Plecas from party after he takes role as Speaker". The Globe and Mail. The Canadian Press. September 9, 2017.
11. Richard Zussman (February 6, 2019). "Speaker Darryl Plecas says his office turned over information to police not in Plecas Report". 'Global News'.
12. Rhianna Schmunk (January 22, 2019). "8 jaw-dropping allegations from B.C. Speaker's report". 'CBC News'.
13. Lori Culbert & Matt Robinson (February 13, 2019). "More fallout from the Plecas report: 'Protocol' watches and MLAs who 'broke the law'". 'The Vancouver Sun'.
14. Darryl Plecas (January 21, 2019). "CONFIDENTIAL REPORT OF SPEAKER DARRYL PLECAS TO THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE CONCERNING ALLEGATIONS OF MISCONDUCT BY SENIOR OFFICERS OF THE BRITISH COLUMBIA LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY" (PDF). Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.
15. Richard Zussman (February 8, 2019). "Clerk and sergeant-at-arms defend themselves against allegations in leaked documents". =Global News.
16. "Statement of Votes – 41st Provincial General Election – May 9, 2017" (PDF). Elections BC. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
17. "2013 Provincial General Election Final Voting Results". Elections BC. Retrieved 16 May 2017.

External links

• Darryl Plecas