A look back at the life of Robertson: from juice maker to mayor

Sept. 18, 1964: Gregor Angus Bethune Robertson was born in North Vancouver to John and Corneil Robertson.

Robertson and his younger brother, Patrick, were brought up in both California and B.C. after their parents divorced; first by his mother, a physical education teacher, in Portola just south of San Francisco, and later with his father, a corporate lawyer at the respected Vancouver firm of Russell Dumoulin.

1982: He graduated from Carson Graham Secondary School and enrolled at the University of B.C. before transferring to Colorado College in Colorado Springs, where he majored in English and biology as a pre-med student, and where he met his wife, Amy.

1986: Robertson graduated from Colorado College.

October 1988: Robertson and his wife Amy refurbished an 18-metre wooden ketch and renamed it Shoeless Joe. They sailed for 14 months across the Pacific, through French Polynesia and to New Zealand. 1990: The Robertsons moved to Vancouver. They bought an old 20-hectare dairy farm in Langley’s Glen Valley.

1992: The first of their three children was born. They also have a foster son, Jinagh Navas-Rivas.

1994: Robertson co-founded the company Happy Planet in 1994 with Randal Lius.

2002-04: Robertson served as director of Tides Canada.

May 2005: Robertson, 43, was elected as an NDP MLA in Vancouver-Fairview. He served as the opposition critic for small business and the co-chair of the NDP’s climate-change task force.

Feb. 24, 2008: Robertson announced he would seek the mayoral nomination with Vision Vancouver. NDP leader Carole James allowed Robertson to seek the mayoral nomination without giving up his seat in the legislature or his MLA salary.

Nov 16, 2008: Robertson was elected mayor of Vancouver,

defeating Peter Ladner of the NPA.

Nov. 19, 2011: Robertson was elected for his second term as mayor. The Vision Vancouver party took a majority of seats on city council, park board and school board. July 5, 2014: Robertson and his wife announced their separation in a joint statement.

Nov. 15, 2014: Robertson won a third term as mayor of Vancouver, defeating NPA challenger Kirk LaPointe.

January 2015: Robertson and pop star Wanting Qu went public with their relationship, six months after he separated from his wife of 30 years.

May 2017: Robertson and pop star Wanting Qu ended their relationship.