Christy Clark was the Premier of British Columbia, Canada’s third largest province, for over six years. Throughout her tenure, Ms. Clark demonstrated the strongest performance of any Canadian Premier for economic growth, fiscal management and job creation.
As an advisor at Bennett Jones, Ms. Clark offers clients insights tied to her experience in infrastructure, Canada-Asia trade, natural resources, social licence and indigenous relations.
As Premier, Ms. Clark earned a well-deserved reputation as a consensus builder both within the Cabinet, and outside it. Her management style was to carefully set out a plan that included hard goals and deadlines for each Ministry and monitor progress through regular reporting to Cabinet and Committees which she chaired.
Her legacy is characterized by her determination to plan for future generations. She left British Columbia with a significantly diversified economy, a greater diversity of markets, a plan for a new, clean energy supply, billions of dollars of new infrastructure, and a dramatic reduction in the burden of public debt that will be borne by future generations of British Columbians.
When she left office, British Columbia had been Canada’s economic leader for three years running—the first time that has happened since the 1960s. B.C. went from being ninth in job creation to first among provinces. And, after inheriting a deficit of $1.2 billion, Ms. Clark’s government went on to balance five consecutive budgets. Her last budget included $52 billion in revenues and boasted a $2.8 billion surplus. When she retired, B.C. was on track to eliminating its operating debt by 2020—the first time since 1976. B.C. was also the only Canadian province with a AAA credit rating.
Ms. Clark retired from political life in 2017 as the longest serving female Premier in Canadian history and the only woman in Canada ever to be re-elected.
Bennett Jones