Bliss, happiness, joy, a life fulfilled, family as all important, and a driving political force: BC United leader Kevin Falcon sitting on the porch of their home with wife Jessica and their two daughters
Kevin Falcon is one of the most driven, successful and accomplished tranformational figures to grace the British Columbia political landscape this century.
The former Deputy Premier of British Columbia, Kevin Falcon is generally regarded as one of our province’s most successful ever Finance Ministers — during his tenure in that portfolio, providing necessary services and economic growth to serve the interests of all British Columbians — an outstanding Minister of Health — yet another portfolio in which he far exceeded expectation, emerging as a groundbreaking defender of our health care system — and a builder in the mould of former Socred Premier, W.A.C. Bennett, Kevin Falcon in his lengthy, storied tenure as British Columbia’s Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure — without Kevin Falcon, those of us living across Metro Vancouver would have no Canada Line today, with ridership levels of more than 170,000 commuters each day, were it not for the across the aisle, non-partisan, visionary leadership of Kevin Falcon.
The current leader of B.C. United — the official opposition in the British Columbia Legislature, to Premier David Eby’s British Columbia New Democratic Party — Kevin Falcon is a generational British Columbia political leader who has long served the best interests of the citizens of our province well, with dedication and distinction.
Jessica Elliott and Kevin Falcon were wed on Saturday, July 25, 2009, in a low-key, back yard ceremony
For all his success as a Minister of the Crown, Kevin Falcon — for almost a half century — was a confirmed bachelor, leading a lonely — if directed — life of service, unloved, unseen, unappreciated and little known — feeling deep within himself that he was, perhaps, undeserving of love. Upon meeting Jessica Elliott, a substitute teacher working on her Master’s degree, he fell head over heels in love, and much to his utter surprise and delight, the object of his deep affection and love, fell just as deeply in love with him as he was with her, as remains the case to this very day.
Life changed forever — Mr. Falcon would contend, if you were to ask him, for the much much better — upon his marriage to Ms. Elliott, now Ms. Falcon, the personal, joyful “tragedy” of Mr. Falcon’s marriage to Ms. Elliott compounded only months later by the birth of his daughter, Josephine, now 14 years of age, and in 2012 with the birth of his second child, daughter Rose, all of 11 years young.
With the birth of newborn Rose, Kevin Falcon — now and forever, a changed man, a family man whose primary priority was now the happiness and welfare of his wife Jessica, and their beloved young daughters — told the members of his B.C. Liberal caucus that he would not run for re-election in his long-held Surrey-Cloverdale riding, in the then upcoming 2013 British Columbia provincial general election.
As a dedicated family man — his life revolving almost totally around his wife, and two daughters — Kevin Falcon did not forego contribution, as he took on a number of volunteer roles with non-profit organizations, including the Canuck Place Foundation, Lions Gate Hospital Foundation and the Streetohome Foundation.
From that date in 2013 through until February 5, 2022, upon crossing the 50% threshold required to win the leadership of the B.C. Liberal party — which he did on the fifth ballot — Kevin Falcon had remained out of politics, when in 2013, he joined Vancouver-based Anthem Capital as their Executive Vice President.
Following Mr. Falcon’s win, Andrew Wilkinson — who had led the B.C. Liberals to ignominous defeat in the 2020 British Columbia election, his campaign for office dogged by allegations of lack of leadership, and anti-LGBTQ / anti-vax / anti-woman / eugenics sentiment of then Chilliwack-Kent B.C. Liberal candidate Laurie Throness — formally resigned as an MLA to free up his Vancouver-Quilchena seat for Mr. Falcon. A by-election for the riding was called on April 2, 2022. Mr. Falcon won the by-election, and was elected riding MLA, taking his seat in the Legislature.
Perhaps the most transformative change western culture has experienced in the past two decades has arisen as a consequence of the critically important, the vital, the fundamental, the pivotal and the joyous, indispensable role men have now come to play as involved, utterly essential fathers in the lives of their children.
Clockwise from the top left: Scott Andrews, senior consultant at Earnscliffe Strategies; Derrick O’Keefe, journalist with Richochet Media; Gavin Dew, BC Conservative candidate for Kelowna-Mission, with his lovely wife, Erin, and their beautiful daughter and young son; and Stephen von Zychowski, President of the Vancouver District & Labour Council, with daughter, Coraline (who he loves with all his heart).
The Kevin Falcon of 2024 is very much not the Kevin Falcon of 2001 thru 2013.
The Kevin Falcon of today is more forward and ‘future thinking’ than the Kevin Falcon of old — the pre-having-a-family Kevin Falcon — the Kevin Falcon we thought we all knew, but apparently did not, and the Kevin Falcon the B.C. Liberal party elected as the redemptive leader of the aimless, perhaps too regressive, ‘out of touch with the times’ B.C. Liberal party of 2022, the centre-right B.C. political party that had been so unceremoniously defeated in the 2020 B.C. election.
BC United leader Kevin Falcon, walking his beloved, cherished daughters, Rose & Josephine, to school
Today’s VanRamblings constitutes the first of a two-part series on the B.C. United leader, the second part of the series expressing why Kevin Falcon and B.C. United find themselves in the doldrums politically, seemingly on the verge of political oblivion come the evening of Saturday, October 19th, why the newly progressive, forward-and-future-thinking, newly-minted B.C. United leader believed it was of critical importance to excise a backward thinking, neanderthal member of the B.C. Liberal caucus — which is to say, current B.C. Conservative party leader, John Rustad, who Mr. Falcon could just not stomach — and the impact that decision has had on Mr. Falcon’s personal and political fortunes, and on the fortunes of the British Columbia political party he heads … but for how much longer?