Peter Fassbender

Peter Fassbender (born 1946) is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2013 provincial election after a career at the municipal level.[2] He was elected to represent the electoral district of Surrey-Fleetwood as a member of the British Columbia Liberal Party. He was appointed by Premier Christy Clark as Minister of Education in June 2013, then Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development & Minister Responsible for TransLink in July 2015.

Peter Fassbender
Member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly for Surrey-Fleetwood
In office May 14, 2013 – May 9, 2017
Preceded by	Jagrup Brar
Succeeded by	Jagrup Brar
Mayor of the City of Langley
In office December 5, 2005 – June 17, 2013
Preceded by	Marlene Grinnell
Succeeded by	Ted Schaffer
Langley City Councillor
In office December 9, 2002 – December 5, 2005
Personal details
Born	(1946-12-20) December 20, 1946 Germany [1]
Political party	BC Liberal
Spouse(s)	Charlene
Children	Two sons
Profession	Politician
Website	www.fassbender.ca

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. He graduated from Queen Elizabeth High School in Surrey and attended the National Broadcasting School in Vancouver. He got a film librarian job at CHAN Television (now Global) and moved up the ranks to cameraman, and then producer and director. He worked for advertising agency James Lovick in the early 1970s and eventually became a partner of Frank Palmer at national firm DDB Canada (formerly Palmer Jarvis).[1][3] A major focus of his private sector career focused on social marketing campaigns including smoking cessation projects for Health Canada and international marketing activities for Industry Canada.[3] In 1996 and 1997 he was reported to have done volunteer public relations work for the evangelical men's organization Promise Keepers.[4] He is a distant cousin of actor Michael Fassbender.

Politics

After a failed run at a Social Credit nomination, Fassbender served a four-year term (1975 to 1979) during some turbulent years on the Langley school board.[1] During that time, the board pursued a 'back-to-basics' approach that considered restoration of corporal punishment and banning the Go Ask Alice novel.[5] Fassbender says his approach to education has changed since the 1970s.[1]

Fassbender was elected for the first time to the city council of Langley 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 as co-chair of the municipal advisory council for Fraser Health and as vice-chair of TransLink's mayors council.

In November 2012, the provincial government appointed Fassbender as chair of the board for the BC Pavilion Corporation, which operates BC Place Stadium and the Vancouver Convention Centre. In addition to dealing with major renovations, the position also dealt with transparency criticism from journalist Bob Mackin.[6] In the 2013 provincial election, he defeated three-term NDP MLA Jagrup Brar 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.

In addition to his ministerial duties, Fassbender sat on the Cabinet Committee on Secure Tomorrow.[7]

In 2017 provincial election, he lost his re-election as MLA to Jagrup Brar.

In 2018, he ran for his former position as mayor of the City of Langley.[8] He was narrowly defeated, losing to Val van den Broek by around 200 votes.[9]

Electoral record

2017 British Columbia general election: Surrey-Fleetwood
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	New Democratic	Jagrup Brar	9,951	53.42
	Liberal	Peter Fassbender	6,659	35.75
	Green	Tim Binnema	2,018	10.83
Total valid votes			18,628	100.00
Source: Elections BC[10]

2013 British Columbia general election: Surrey-Fleetwood
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Peter Fassbender	8,974	45.43
	New Democratic	Jagrup Brar	8,774	44.41
	Green	Tim Binnema	1,147	5.81
	Conservative	Murali Krishnan	801	4.05
	Vision	Arvin Kumar	59	0.30
Total valid votes			19,755	100.00
Total rejected ballots			134	0.67
Turnout			19,889	55.72
Source: Elections BC[11]

References

1. St. Denis, Jen (13 June 2013). "Peter Fassbender: Higher education". Business in Vancouver (magazine). Retrieved 28 April 2014.
2. "Riding results: Marvin Hunt and Peter Fassbender carry Liberals to victory in Surrey ridings". Vancouver Sun, May 15, 2013.
3. "Meet Peter". fassbender.ca. Archived from the original on 28 April 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
4. "11,000 'take charge of family' Christian men plan rally at Coliseum". Vancouver Sun, November 15, 1996.
5. Steffenhagen, Janet (9 June 2013). "Peter Fassbender and the back-to-basics education movement in the '70s". BC Education Report. Vancouver Sun (blogs). Retrieved 28 April 2014.
6. Stueck, Wendy (16 Nov 2012). "B.C. government names Langley mayor as PavCo chair". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
7. Legislature Bio
8. "ELECTION: Langley City mayoralty candidate Peter Fassbender". Langley Advance Times. 12 October 2018.
9. "B.C. municipal election 2018: Langley (City) results". Global News.
10. "2017 Provincial General Election Preliminary Voting Results". Elections BC. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
11. "Statement of Votes - 40th Provincial General Election" (PDF). Elections BC. Retrieved 17 May 2017.

British Columbia Provincial Government of Christy Clark
Cabinet posts (2)
Predecessor	Office	Successor
Coralee Oakes	Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development July 30, 2015–June 12, 2017	Sam Sullivan
Don McRae	Minister of Education June 10, 2013–July 30, 2015	Mike Bernier