Mark Allan Robinson

Last updated

Mark Robinson
Personal details
Born (1975-01-20) January 20, 1975 (age 49)
Penticton, BC
OccupationCommunity support worker

Mark Allan Robinson (born January 20, 1975) was the proponent of the first recall petition in Canadian history that reached the required threshold to remove an elected politician. The recall petition was to force a by-election in the riding that Paul Reitsma represented. While the threshold was met, Reitsma resigned before it was made official. [1]

Contents

Mark Robinson was born in Penticton, BC and moved to Nanaimo, BC at a young age. He has been politically active from the age of 18, sitting on various local government committees and boards of directors for non-profit organizations. For over ten years during the 2000s, he taught ESL. Since then, he has worked as a front-line community support worker. He is a single father with three daughters.

In the 1996 British Columbia general election, Robinson ran as a candidate for the Green Party in the Parksville-Qualicum riding. More recently, on October 15, 2022, he was elected as a school trustee for the School District 68 Nanaimo-Ladysmith. [2]

1998 recall election

In the spring of 1998, Paul Reitsma, a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the BC Liberal Party in the Parksville-Qualicum riding, had been caught by Cam Purdy, editor of local Parksville newspaper, Parksville/Qualicum Beach Morning Sun, writing letters to the editor for years praising himself and signing them under fabricated names, such as "Warren Betanko". As a result, the Liberals removed Reitsma from their caucus, but he remained as an independent.

Mark Robinson initiated a recall election to force a by-election in the Parksville-Qualicum riding. He organized 194 registered canvassers and volunteers to go door-to-door collecting signatures. Just over 17,000 signatures from eligible voters were required to be gathered between April 15 to June 15 for the recall campaign to be successful.

On June 15, 1998, Mark Robinson presented the petition to Elections BC with over 25,000 signatures. [3] Signatures were verified by Elections BC between June 15 and June 23. Achieving the required 17,020 verified signatures, an announcement was to be made that the recall petition had enough signatures to call a by-election. Just prior to the announcement on June 23, Reitsma resigned his seat in the British Columbia Legislative Assembly after being tipped off about the overwhelming success of the petition to recall him. Had he not resigned, he would have become the first politician in the British Commonwealth to be recalled. [4] [5]

With the seat vacant, a by-election was called for later that year on December 14. Judith Reid of the BC Liberals won the seat with over 50% of the vote. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

Judith Reid is a politician in British Columbia, Canada. She is a former Liberal Party Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), and was Minister of Transportation for 3 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vancouver-Point Grey</span> Provincial electoral district in British Columbia, Canada

Vancouver-Point Grey is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. It was first contested in the general election of 1933. It was created out of parts of Richmond-Point Grey, South Vancouver and Vancouver City. The riding began as a three-member seat, and was reduced to a two-member seat in 1966 when Vancouver-Little Mountain was created. In the redistribution preceding the 1991 election, it was reduced to a one-member riding along with the other older urban ridings, as several new one-member ridings were created.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanaimo (provincial electoral district)</span> Provincial electoral district in British Columbia, Canada

Nanaimo is a former provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada, in use until 2024.

Nanaimo-Parksville was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada from 2001 to 2009.

Paul Reitsma is a former member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada, for the electoral district of Parksville-Qualicum.

Ron Cantelon is a Canadian politician, who served in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 2005 to 2013. He represented the ridings of Nanaimo-Parksville from 2005 to 2009, and Parksville-Qualicum from 2009 to 2013, as a member of the BC Liberal Party caucus. He served as Minister of Agriculture and Lands from January 30, 2009 to June 10, 2009. On September 26, 2011, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors. On September 5, 2012, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation and Technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonard Krog</span> Canadian politician and lawyer

Leonard Eugene Krog is a Canadian politician and lawyer in British Columbia, who currently serves as mayor of Nanaimo. He previously served in the provincial legislature on two occasions as a member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party, representing the riding of Parksville-Qualicum from 1991 to 1996, and the riding of Nanaimo from 2005 to 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parksville-Qualicum</span> Provincial electoral district in British Columbia, Canada

Parksville-Qualicum is the name of a former provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia in use from 1991 to 2001 and again from 2009 to 2024. The riding consisted of the city of Parksville, the town of Qualicum Beach and the communities of Lantzville and Nanoose Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Fraser (politician)</span> Canadian politician

Scott Kenneth Fraser is a Canadian politician who represented the Mid Island-Pacific Rim electoral district in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 2005 to 2020. A member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party, he was first elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the 2005 election, defeating one-term Liberal Party incumbent Gillian Trumper, and re-elected in the 2009, 2013 and 2017 elections. During the 41st Parliament (2017-2020) he served in the Executive Council as the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. In that role he led the government through adopting the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, with all party support, to implement the United Nations' Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

An electoral redistribution was undertaken in 2008 in British Columbia in a process that began in late 2005 and was completed with the passage of the Electoral Districts Act, 2008 on April 10, 2008. The redistribution modified most electoral boundaries in the province and increased the number of MLAs from 79 to 85. The electoral boundaries created by the redistribution were first used in the 2009 provincial election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Stilwell</span> Canadian athlete and politician

Michelle Stilwell is a Canadian athlete and politician. She represented Canada at four Summer Paralympic Games, as well as the 2015 Parapan American Games. She competed in wheelchair basketball before becoming a wheelchair racer, and is the only female Paralympic athlete to win gold medals in two separate summer sport events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gwen O'Mahony</span> Canadian politician (born 1972)

Gwen O'Mahony is a Canadian politician, who represented Chilliwack-Hope in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from April 2012 until April 2013 as a member of the British Columbia New Democratic Party, and is now a member of the Conservative Party of British Columbia.

Shaye Quinn Anderson is a Canadian politician who was elected in the 2015 Alberta general election to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta representing the electoral district of Leduc-Beaumont. Anderson defeated longtime MLA George Rogers in an election that saw the NDPs win a majority government, the first government change the province had seen since 1971. On January 19, 2017, Anderson was sworn in as Minister of Municipal Affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheila Malcolmson</span> Canadian politician

Sheila Malcolmson is a Canadian politician who has served as the Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for the electoral district of Nanaimo since January 30, 2019. She was previously the federal Member of Parliament for Nanaimo-Ladysmith from 2015 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Walker (Canadian politician)</span> Canadian politician

Adam Walker is a Canadian politician who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2020 British Columbia general election. He represents the electoral district of Parksville-Qualicum as an Independent.

Lisa Marie Barron is a Canadian politician from British Columbia. She was elected to represent the riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2021 Canadian federal election. She is a member of the New Democratic Party. Before she won election at the federal level, Barron was a School District 68 Nanaimo-Ladysmith board trustee and an employee of local public schools.

Ladysmith-Oceanside is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. Created under the 2021 British Columbia electoral redistribution, the riding will first be contested in the 2024 British Columbia general election. It was created out parts of Parksville-Qualicum and Nanaimo-North Cowichan.

References

  1. "Trustees Mark Robinson". Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools. Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
  2. Sakaki, Greg; Yu, Karl. "Incumbent trustees top the polls, but Nanaimo-Ladysmith school board has 5 new additions". Nanaimo New Bulletin. Black Press Media. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
  3. "Petition turned in to recall B.C. MLA". CBC News. CBC/Radio-Canada. March 6, 1999. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
  4. "Reitsma Resigns". CBC News. November 13, 1998. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved December 10, 2007.
  5. Recall Petition R98005 Parksville-Qualicum, Elections BC, 1998, archived from the original on February 16, 2001, retrieved December 10, 2007
  6. CANelec/source| "December 14, 1998 By-election" (PDF). Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. December 14, 1998. Retrieved February 27, 2023.