Mike Harcourt is returning to the University of Victoria’s Farquhar Auditorium stage on Thursday, 25 years to the month — and practically to the day — since being sworn in there as B.C.’s premier on Nov. 5, 1991.
The former NDP premier, who held office from 1991 to 1996, will become an honorary doctor of laws as part of UVic’s fall convocation.
“That will be enjoyable,” Harcourt said. He laughed at the significant gap between one honour and the next on the Farquhar stage.
Harcourt, 73, said the decision to have his swearing-in ceremony at UVic was intended to make it as public as possible.
“Then we went back to the legislature and had an open house. Thousands of people showed up.”
His life changed in 2002 when he fell down a cliff while clearing leaves at his Pender Island home and suffered partial paralysis. He was very open with his recovery — returning to 80 per cent function — and wrote a book about his experiences called Plan B: One Man’s Journey from Tragedy to Triumph.
His situation led to working with Rick Hansen on accessibility issues, something that the two men championed at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Harcourt, who spent part of his youth in Victoria — attending Willows Elementary, what was then Lansdowne Junior High and Oak Bay High — said the opportunities he has had since being premier “show there is life after politics.”
“I’ve been pretty fortunate with the range of activities, most of them around sustainability issues, that I’ve been able to be involved with.”
That includes spending nine years as a member of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, serving as a commissioner with the B.C. Treaty Commission and having two terms on the boards of both the Vancouver Airport Authority and the Vancouver Port Authority.
Along the way, Harcourt has earned such awards as the Canadian Urban Institute’s Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award and the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service.
— Jeff Bell
