Early Political Career
Vander Zalm was elected alderman of Surrey in 1965, and served as the city's mayor from 1969 to 1975. His tenure was marked by his crackdown on welfare "deadbeats" (up to the early 1970s, welfare in BC was a municipal responsibility).
Vander Zalm was originally a supporter of both the Liberal Party of Canada and the BC Liberal Party. He sought election to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1968 federal election as a Liberal in Surrey. He lost by 5,000 votes. He was also a candidate at the 1972 provincial Liberal leadership convention, where he lost to David Anderson. He joined the BC Social Credit Party in 1974.
Read more about this topic: Bill Vander Zalm
Famous quotes containing the words early, political and/or career:
“Yet, haply, in some lull of life,
Some Truce of God which breaks its strife,
The worldling’s eyes shall gather dew,
Dreaming in throngful city ways
Of winter joys his boyhood knew;
And dear and early friends—the few”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“Truly men hate the truth; they’d liefer
Meet a tiger on the road.
Therefore the poets honey their truth with lying; but religion-
Vendors and political men
Pour from the barrel, new lies on the old,”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“Work-family conflicts—the trade-offs of your money or your life, your job or your child—would not be forced upon women with such sanguine disregard if men experienced the same career stalls caused by the-buck-stops-here responsibility for children.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)