John Horgan, the former B.C. premier known as John from Langford, died Tuesday at the age of 65 after a third bout with cancer.
Horgan, who was appointed ambassador to Germany last year, died at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, was surrounded in his final days by his family and closest friends.
The flag at the B.C. legislature was lowered to half-mast Tuesday and British Columbians will be offered an opportunity to express their condolences, with details expected to be released in the coming days.
Horgan, the MLA for Langford-Juan de Fuca, became the first premier from Vancouver Island in 76 years when he formed a minority government with the support of the Green Party in 2017.
He stepped down as premier in 2022, having led the province through a pandemic, historic floods, wildfires and heat waves, resigning his seat in 2023.
In June, Horgan announced he was on leave from his position as ambassador after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer following a routine check in Berlin. He was in hospital in Germany for about five months before arriving at Royal Jubilee more than a week ago.
Horgan, who survived throat cancer in 2021 and bladder cancer in 2008, had remained confident that he would “live long and prosper,” using the phrase made popular in the 1960s TV series Star Trek, his favourite.
It’s the same blessing his family used in a statement Tuesday following news of his death.
“Our hearts are broken to announce the passing of our beloved husband, father and friend, John Horgan,” said the statement released by Sheena McConnell, his former press secretary and a family friend. “The well-being of British Columbia and everyone in it was everything to him.”
Horgan is survived by his wife, Ellie, and sons Evan and Nate.
One of his closest childhood friends, Michael Allabarton, an international branding expert who had been working in Australia, returned home to Oak Bay late Monday night and made plans to visit Horgan on Tuesday afternoon.
Allabarton, who was asked to deliver the eulogy, said everyone felt they were Horgan’s friend because of the sincerity and kindness with which he greeted most people.
The power of politics never got to the former premier’s head and Horgan remained in constant contact with his childhood best friends, Allabarton said.
“He was never affected by the politics and everything else, he was just who he is,” Allabarton said. “I love his frugal-ness. I loved his humanity. I loved his humour. He was all those things and that’s what attracted people to him. He was ‘John from Langford,’ as he used to call himself.”
'Kindness and courage'
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Horgan was a firm believer in public service and served Canadians with a tenacity, passion and dedication “that very few could match.”
The prime minister said Horgan took on the role as Canada’s ambassador to Germany last year with the same “infectious positivity” he displayed in previous roles.
“I can’t think of anyone better to represent Canada and Canadians,” said Trudeau, adding Horgan “embodied kindness and courage.”
“He was a fighter. He will be celebrated for his leadership and the progress he made on so many important issues.”
Above all, Trudeau said, Horgan will be remembered for how he made people feel — his warmth and ability to connect with people irrespective of their politics or beliefs.
“John leaves behind a profound legacy that will inspire us for generations to come,” he said.
Premier David Eby said the news of Horgan’s passing had left everyone with heavy hearts.
“John loved this province and its people,” he said. “His many accomplishments as premier will be felt for years and generations to come.
B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad said Horgan was not just a colleague but a man of genuine warmth and integrity.
“His approachable nature and willingness to engage in open dialogue were qualities that I admired greatly,” Rustad said. “He had a way of making everyone feel heard, regardless of their stance or background.”
B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau said in a statement that Horgan dedicated his life to serving British Columbia.
She noted that under Horgan’s leadership, the province saw the introduction of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, $10-a-day childcare, the Clean B.C. climate plan, “and many other initiatives and policies that were focused on long-term solutions for the province.”
The making of 'John from Langford'
John Joseph Horgan was born Aug. 7, 1959, to Alice May (née Clutterbuck) and Pat Horgan. He had two brothers, Brian and Pat, and a sister, Kathy, and was the youngest of the four. (He was predeceased by Pat in 2018.)
He was just 18 months old when his father died of a brain aneurysm, leaving his single mother to raise four kids.
Horgan didn’t adopt his father’s Catholicism but embraced the rest of his Irish heritage, retaining his Irish passport and marking every St. Patrick’s Day. He also shared his father’s love of basketball and lacrosse.
Growing up in Saanich, Horgan attended Lakehill Elementary and Reynolds High School, where he was school president. He and his best friends shared a love of sports.
To save for university, Horgan had a variety of jobs, but often talked about his work at a paper mill in Ocean Falls on B.C.’s central coast. He later applied to Carleton University’s journalism program, but said he wasn’t accepted.
He met Ellie, a biologist by training, during his first week at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., in September 1979 while on a pub crawl. It was love at first sight. The couple went on to marry, living in the same Langford home for more than 30 years, and have two sons, Nate and Evan, who are both married.
Horgan graduated from Trent with a bachelor of arts in history, followed by a master’s degree from Sydney University in Australia.
A self-described policy wonk, Horgan headed right for government after university, looking to work with “smart people solving complex problems.”
He rose from legislative assistant in the federal government in Ottawa to chief of staff in the office of B.C. NDP premier Dan Miller, and associate deputy minister for the provincial Finance Ministry on energy projects.
Following the election of the B.C. Liberals in 2001, Horgan started a management and research consulting company that did work for private- and public-sector organizations.
After a few years, a family friend suggested he run for office. Friend Adrian Dix, who had worked with Horgan in Ottawa and would be his health minister, suggested the same.
Horgan was first elected to the legislature in 2005 in the riding of Malahat-Juan de Fuca. In May 2014, he was acclaimed as party leader.
After Christy Clark’s B.C. Liberals failed to capture a majority in 2017, Horgan signed a confidence and supply agreement with B.C. Green Leader Andrew Weaver and formed an NDP minority government. He won a majority three years later after calling a snap election at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, Weaver said Horgan embodied “everything about the word ‘honourable’ as he served as premier,” and that his legacy of leadership “will live on forever.”
By the time he stepped away as B.C.’s 36th premier in 2022, Horgan had eliminated Medical Services Plan premiums, slashed childcare costs, and reduced ICBC rates.
Amongst his regrets were a misreading of the public mood over the economy with his support for a new $789-million Royal B.C. Museum and its proposed eight-year closure. He cancelled the replacement project and took full responsibility.
Horgan, who served five terms as a member of the provincial legislature, resigned his seat in March 2023, citing health reasons after receiving more than 30 radiation treatments to battle throat cancer.
From often-angry politician to big-hearted leader
If Horgan was known as a take-no-prisoners, often-angry politician while in Opposition, he transformed into a big-hearted, easygoing leader who political scientist Hamish Telford said planted the party politically “very firmly in the middle of the spectrum.”
Telford said Horgan accomplished a rarity in politics: He left office more popular than when he was first elected.
Horgan’s popularity — he had a median approval rating of 54 per cent over his five years as premier, and was the most consistently popular since W.A.C. Bennett in the 1950s and 1960s — was widely attributed to his everyman appeal.
The former premier will be remembered as a leader whose eight years at the helm of the B.C. New Democrats managed to elevate the party to a pragmatic and steady political force that voters could support after almost 20 years in opposition, said Telford, who teaches at the University of the Fraser Valley.
“Against the odds, he succeeded and governed for five years — and if it wasn’t for his health I’m sure he could have kept on governing,” he said. “He went out more popular than when he came in. That is an extraordinary feat for any politician.”
The former premier, who was loyal to Doc Martens footwear and proudly wore his Victoria Shamrocks team jersey, was known for his Dad jokes and and colourful rapport in and out of the legislature.
Friend Keith Bridge recalled on Tuesday the story of the Washington state couple who wandered into the B.C. legislature and, looking lost, was asked if they needed directions — or a tour of the most private of places in the building.
Afterward, the couple was asked by security if they knew who had given them the tour and they said, “We sure do, he said his name was John and he said he worked here,” recalled Bridge, executive director of the Victoria RunSport Society.
“And that’s basically John.”
Former NDP leader Carole James, deputy premier under Horgan, said “words really don’t do justice to a giant of a man.”
She said Horgan cared deeply about social justice, governing for all, and bringing people together.
“He was larger than life, and none of that ever changed who he was,” James said on social media. “John from Langford — kind, funny, and passionate about making a difference.
Longtime New Democrat Mike Farnworth, who knew Horgan as a political colleague and a friend for more than 30 years, said the former premier convinced voters, and New Democrats themselves, that the party could lead and govern.
“He shattered myths that had often been perpetuated about New Democrats,” Farnworth said in an interview before Horgan’s death. “They couldn’t govern. They couldn’t get back-to-back majorities with the same leader. He showed that we could be a governing party and not an opposition party. He showed that we could manage the economy, could govern and we could be a stable majority government.”
Langford-Highlands MLA Ravi Parmar, who won the by-election for Horgan’s former seat in Langford-Juan de Fuca in 2023, said he and Horgan forged a relationship in 2005 when Parmar was a student at Millstream Elementary School and asked Horgan to speak to his class.
“Little did I know, all those years ago in Grade 5, how much that meeting would come to mean,” Parmar wrote Tuesday on social media.
Parmar, who considered Horgan a mentor and friend, said he will always be thankful for having known Horgan, who recorded election results on a large white board as they came in.
Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto said Tuesday in an interview she can’t even think of Horgan in the past tense.
“He is just such a kind man, and that’s not something people get said about them very often these days, but I think that what you saw with John is exactly who he was, because there was no artifice about him,” she said, adding he was also decent man.
Alto described Horgan as kind and thoughtful and gregarious and funny — but someone who knew when to be funny. It was humour that often made a difference in the hard moments. “That’s a rare talent.”
Horgan, who was about to become a grandfather, remarked to longtime friend Allabarton many times that his was “a life well lived.”
“That is kind of where he got to,” Allabarton said. “He was so thankful for a life well lived.”
— With files from Andrew Duffy, Carla Wilson and The Canadian Press
