Meet B.C.’s new education minister
High-profile cabinet post puts former rock singer back in the spotlight.
B.C.’s new education minister Mike Bernier promises to bring a fresh, broad perspective to the role. If his past is any indication, that shouldn’t be too much of a stretch.
While his predecessor Peter Fassbender once served as a spokesman for a Christian men’s movement called Promise Keepers, Bernier was once the lead singer of a 1980s cover band called Final Cut. The Vancouver band was known for its Pink Floyd cover tunes and played places like the 86 Street Music Hall, the Metro and the Town Pump.
Of course, that was a long time ago. Today, Bernier, 47, is the married father of five children, who served for years as the president of the Dawson Creek soccer association before becoming the town’s mayor. His oldest son is 28, his youngest 17, with three daughters in between. His wife Valerie worked at the Dawson Creek courthouse until recently and his first grandchild is expected on Christmas Day.
He was elected in 2013 as the MLA for Peace River South, becoming parliamentary secretary for energy literacy and the environment in December 2014. He was appointed minister of education in July.
In between, he was a certified gas fitter who rose to become regional manager of Pacific Northern Gas, the local gas distributor in Dawson Creek. He was elected to council in 2005 and became mayor in 2008.
The city of Dawson Creek’s chief administrative officer Jim Chute met Bernier when he watched him perform with another ’80s cover band called Haven, in the town’s cabarets.
“They covered ’80s music — Boston, Journey — they covered whatever was on the radio, plus the retro stuff. He has a tremendous rock singing voice,” Chute said. “One of the interesting things in my career was at the UBCM annual conference (a few years ago) — my mayor was the banquet entertainment — he put together a band of elected officials who are also musicians.”
While Chute admires Bernier for his music, he also admires his calmness under pressure, a quality that should serve him well as minister of education, a role that can be very challenging.
“When the crap hits the fan, there’s no panic in him,” Chute said. While Bernier was mayor, a series of pipelines were bombed in the area, the previous mayor died of lung cancer and there was a lot of controversy about a new arts centre.
“Those things, in combination ... put Mike under fire from the moment he became mayor, and he just handled it all seamlessly,” Chute said. “My expectation is that Mike will behave very well (as education minister), that he will be calm under fire, that he will be ethical, principled, hardworking and collaborative.”
Last year, Fassbender helmed the ministry through the longest teachers strike in B.C. history, one that closed schools for five weeks and put everyone involved through a lot of stress. The strike ended with a six-year contract.
Jim Iker, president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, was on the other side of those acrimonious negotiations, and says he hopes Bernier will make a positive difference as the new minister of education. Iker was one of the first people Bernier called after learning he would be minister of education, and Bernier says the relationship with the teachers is a top priority.
Fresh look
“We all have the same goals, and that’s to make sure that our kids get the best education possible here in B.C. I wanted him to hear that from me,” Bernier said. “I can’t do it alone and I can only be part of this. I need to work collectively with teachers and the federation.”
Iker said he appreciated the call.
“We had a little chat and I look forward to meeting him to talk about the issues,” Iker said. “We’re both from the northern part of the province and I’m hoping he will have a new perspective — a fresh look at the issues that we need to deal with in terms of underfunding, class size, class composition and the need for more specialized teachers in our system. In addition, I want to work with him on the things that are working well, such as the new curriculum implementation and provincial assessment.”
Chute’s experience of working with Bernier should be good news to Iker.
“He has a bunch of qualities that endear him to the people who are working with him. He was really collaborative in his decision making, so the councillors and the staff who worked with him enjoyed the experience because he took a genuine interest in our opinions,” Chute said. “Also he is an extraordinarily hard worker, as you need to be to be a mayor of a town of this size. You are on call 24-7, 365 days a year and you never shed the job. You have the job when you’re grocery shopping, playing soccer or golfing.”
Oliver Ray, executive director of the North Central Local Government Association, has worked with Bernier.
“(Mike) has a collaborative approach to problem solving, looks for input from all quarters and tries to avoid politicizing issues,” Ray said. “He has a very disarming personality, and places a very high priority on building relationships. But I would certainly caution anyone who tries to take advantage of his laid back personality. There are teeth marks on the toes of his cowboy boots, as we say.”
Ray emphasized Bernier’s experience with First Nations, including when the association welcomed its first aboriginal member, the Gitwinksihlkw Nation. “Sixty per cent of B.C.’s aboriginal population lives in the top two-thirds of the province, and a disproportionate number of them are school aged,” Ray said. “Northern B.C. has worse outcomes than the provincial average. As councillor, mayor and an eight-year member of the NCLGA, Mike is acutely aware of these facts, and is perfectly positioned to help address some of the cultural and health issues that come with these particular dynamics.”
Although Bernier may have been a surprise choice as education minister, Ray thinks it was a good choice. “Mike thinks outside the box. And if the cookie cutter approach to education isn’t producing the best possible results, Mike is the kind of person who is more than willing to throw away the cookie cutter and take a new, collaborative approach,” Ray said.
Bernier wasn’t sure he would stay up north when he moved there 25 years ago to get work and to be closer to his in-laws.
“It was on a two-year plan that I would do a bit of work and go back to the Lower Mainland,” Bernier said. “But that was 25 years ago.” When asked if he likes it there, he says that’s an understatement.
Relationships
“I love it here. I wouldn’t have been here 25 years if it wasn’t what I thought was the best for me and my family. Anybody who has been up north, once they’ve lived here a couple of years, people don’t tend to leave.”
Bernier stayed, moving up the ranks at Pacific Northern Gas. He even kept his job as regional manager there throughout his time as city councillor and mayor, but quit when he was elected as an MLA. He says he is honoured and excited to take over as minister of education.
“Minister Fassbender set the stage for me with the stability of no labour dispute for quite a while — hopefully never again. That really changes the dynamic of what I can come in and work on,” Bernier said. “We can actually focus on classroom issues and educational outcomes and making sure that parents in B.C. have faith and trust in our system. It’s a great system and I want to continue working on it.”
He says his top priority is relationships, including with the teachers’ federation.
“My No. 1 objective is not only that we need to make sure we’re working on our relationships with the teachers’ federation, with school trustees, superintendents and teachers — they’re the people who have really made this machine work — but my objectives really have to be about the parents here in B.C. (and their) need to feel comfortable that their kids are getting the best education that we can provide,” Bernier said.
Bernier grew up in North Vancouver, an avid soccer player and student at Holy Trinity and St. Thomas Aquinas schools. His favourite subject was social studies, an interest he now fulfils by travelling.
While Bernier attended private school, all five of his children attended public school, except one daughter who went to private school for Grade 11 and 12. Three of his children were in French Immersion; one has medical issues and spent some time being home-schooled.
Before he became a singer, Bernier says he was painfully shy and nervous. “If a teacher asked me to go up to the board to solve a problem, I would get butterflies and my hands would shake, I was so nervous. It wasn’t until I got involved in music that it brought me out of my shell,” he said. “Once I started doing public performances and realizing it wasn’t that bad ... I went from being nervous in front of two people, to going up on stage in front of 20,000 people and not being nervous.”
He encourages students to get involved in the arts or sports as a way to increase their confidence and open doors in their lives.
“I’d like to see all our kids do something like drama, musical theatre or playing a musical instrument. Once you have it, it helps create you as a person,” he said. “We have to make sure that we’re giving kids that wellrounded perspective. Everybody has different life passions and we want to make sure we have opportunities for that, but also, if we know there are going to be opportunities out there, we want to give the kids opportunities to realize that.”
Mike) has a collaborative approach to problem solving, looks for input from all quarters and tries to avoid politicizing issues.
OLIVER RAY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NORTH CENTRAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION