John Twigg, interim leader of the BC Refederation Party

Biography of John Twigg,
Leader, BC Refederation Party

John Maitland Twigg was born in West Vancouver on March 9, 1949, the first of the two boys born to Arthur and Betty Twigg. 

His family has deep roots in British Columbia, with ancestors here on both sides going back to the late 1800s and several relatives having served in elected and appointed offices and having been involved in the start-up of institutions such as the Farmers Institute, the P.N.E. and the B.C. Lions football club. Several of his forefathers also had careers involving writing, politics and government in the early years of B.C. and several others had careers in the military, including different ones in both World War I and II.

After growing up in West Vancouver he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and English from the University of British Columbia in 1972. While at UBC he also worked for five years on The Ubyssey student newspaper during which he also worked part-time for the Vancouver Sun and covered council meetings in most communities in the Lower Mainland. Later he became a full-time reporter and desk editor, gaining experience in a wide range of departments and technologies (including being among the last to use hot metal type). In this period he also hiked and wrote the first guide book to the West Coast Trail for the Sierra Club of B.C.

From 1972 to 1975 Twigg was Press Secretary to B.C. Premier David Barrett and thus he traveled widely with the Premier both inside and outside the province. In the process he received an invaluable education in how the province works, and how it relates to Canada.
Twigg was the first person to hold the Press Secretary post in the province’s history and that also made him an innovator in many government institutions including quite a few that continue in use today some 30 years later. They include the news conference theatre, the free telephone inquiry service and arguably even the Public Affairs Bureau, among many other diverse moves such as his successful urgings to get the Nitinat Triangle included in the West Coast Trail National Park. 

Following the defeat of the Barrett government Twigg and his then-new family moved to Regina where he became an active freelancer for business publications and resource industry journals between 1976 and 1985. After a brief stint with Canadian Press he became Financial Editor of the Regina Leader Post in 1978 and also did work on radio and television. He thus became familiar with industries such as agriculture, oil and gas, coal, mining, railways, telecommunications, financial services and others. More recently he has come up to speed on most of B.C.’s industries too, especially in resources, financial services, governments, transportation, social and health services and new technologies. As a journalist he also participated in a variety of sponsored study tours to bodies such as NATO, the European Union and the GATT.

For the last 20 years, Twigg, now 58, has been an independent member of the Victoria Legislative Press Gallery, mainly publishing his own newsletters such as B.C. Politics Trendwatch and doing freelancing for various leading publications, but he also has engaged in a wide variety of other media, business and personal interests over the years, including being a communications consultant in a variety of industries for corporations and professional societies. He has never done any lobbying for any commercial clients and has maintained contacts in a wide range of political parties and other public bodies.

He also has a wide range of personal interests, such as in sports, table games, gardening and music. In addition to the West Coast Trail book he has contributed to a history of Union Steamships (with his father Arthur, now deceased), and Vander Zalm: from Immigrant to Premier (a biography written mainly by his brother Alan Twigg). John also wrote an unpublished history of Interprovincial Steel and Pipe Corporation of Regina (which was a study of an early and successful P3 business start-up in the early years of the Douglas CCF governments).

Twigg is now single and living in Campbell River where he manages the care of his 101-year-old grandmother, does a weekly public affairs show on the Campbell River Television co-op system and maintains several other activities such as serving on the Advisory Planning Commission for "Area D" of the Comox-Strathcona Regional District. 

He also continues to publish newsletters and commentaries on B.C. politics and other topics, and to pursue other personal interests including regularly studying the Bible. He has four children and three step-children from two previous marriages and was a custodial single father for 10 years until his son James graduated from high school in 2006 and went to university.

BC Refed president Dennis Shaw said the party is fortunate to have found someone who not only is fully conversant with all of the current and historic issues in B.C. politics but who also fully supports the principles and policy priorities of B.C. Refed and who furthermore will be helping to broaden its policy base too, notably by adding "good government" and "sustainable environment and economy" to its three existing core principles: Direct Democracy, a B.C. Constitution, and renegotiating B.C.'s Terms of Union with Canada, which we now call "Refederation".