Mike de Jong

In 1994, De Jong was recruited by Gordon Campbell of the British Columbia Liberal Party to compete against new Social Credit Party leader Grace McCarthy in a by-election in Matsqui. The Socreds had represented the riding for 42 years until De Jong defeated McCarthy by a margin of 42 votes.[2] McCarthy had been attempting to rebuild the province's governing political party. Shortly after the loss, McCarthy resigned as Social Credit Party leader, and the party failed to elect any members in the subsequent provincial election in 1996.

De Jong was a member of the Official Opposition between 1994 and 2001. As an opposition critic, de Jong was regarded as very vocal. He was ejected from the legislative assembly for calling then-Attorney General Colin Gabelmann a "liar" and was later sued for libel by federal cabinet minister Herb Dhaliwal.[2]

In the 2001 election, de Jong ran in the new riding of new riding of Abbotsford-Mount Lehman. After his party was victorious in the election, de Jong was appointed Minister of Forests in the new Campbell ministry.[3] In 2004, de Jong removed 70,000 hectares of land from TFL 44 with no compensation from the owner and against the recommendations of ministry staff. This effectively privatized what had been Crown Land without compensation to the province. The changes made allowed the wood to be exported as raw logs rather than lumber. It also allowed for its eventual development. The land in question was under dispute by the Hupacasath First Nation and also the Tseshaht First Nation. No consultation took place and the bands have since filed legal action.[4][5] He has also been linked to other such privatizations of Crown forest land.[6] After the 2005 election, de Jong became Minister of Labour and Citizens' Services.[7] The following year, in a small cabinet shuffle, he became Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation.[8]

In the 2009 election, de Jong ran in the newly created riding of Abbotsford West. Following the election, in which the BC Liberals remained in office, de Jong was named Attorney General.[9] On two occasions in 2010, de Jong stepped in as Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General while Kash Heed was under investigation for campaign violations. That same year, de Jong faced controversy when he approved the payment of $6 million in legal fees for Liberal Party insiders David Basi and Robert Virk who pleaded guilty to charges of breach of trust and accepting benefits in connection with the sale of BC Rail in 2003. De Jong defended his actions saying the government's Legal Services Branch had recommended they not try to collect the funds since the aides did not have any money.[10]

On December 1, 2010, Mike de Jong announced that he would seek the leadership of the BC Liberal Party, in the February 26, 2011 leadership election. He placed fourth in the leadership election, which was won by Christy Clark.[11]

In Clark's initial cabinet, de Jong was named Minister of Health.[12][13] On September 5, 2012, he was appointed Minister of Finance.[14] From 2013 to 2017, de Jong tabled five consecutive balanced budgets.[15]

On September 26, 2017, de Jong announced he would again seek his party's leadership in the 2018 leadership election.[16] On January 18, 2018, de Jong and rival candidate Andrew Wilkinson announced they had struck a deal to support each other as their second-ballot choices.[17] De Jong placed fifth in a field of six, but his alliance with Wilkinson was critical to the latter's victory.[18]

De Jong was re-elected in the 2020 election.[19]