Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA Murray Rankin says he will not run in the fall provincial election. Rankin, most recently minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, said it has been a privilege to represent his community but “now is the time to step aside and allow others to contribute.”
Rankin, a lawyer who served as MP for the riding from 2012 to 2019, said the highlight of his career in provincial politics was overseeing the government’s implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
“I believe our government’s efforts to achieve reconciliation will be regarded as among its greatest achievements,” Rankin said in a letter dated June 2.
Rankin said while the entire government supported the transformation, he was responsible for ensuring the action plan co-developed with Indigenous leaders brings about “real and lasting change.”
Rankin recounted other achievements, including his involvement in enacting federal legislation to enshrine medical assistance in dying in Canada; a settlement for thalidomide victims; an Orange Shirt Day private member’s bill that eventually became the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation; and serving as Canada’s first chair of the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency.
Rankin, who has law degrees from the University of Toronto and Harvard University, was previously a University of Victoria professor of law.
The provincial election is expected to be held in October.
Two Vancouver Island NDP MPs have announced they will not be on the ballot in the federal election next year, including Rachel Blaney, who has represented North Island-Powell River for the past nine years, and Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke MP Randall Garrison, who was first elected in 2011.
