William King

Who is William King?

William 'Bill' King is a former British Columbia politician from Revelstoke. King was a member of Dave Barrett's 1972 BC NDP provincial government, serving in the post of Minister of Labour.

King was born in Tisdale, Saskatchewan on September 15, 1930 to Irish immigrants Patrick and Minnie King. He married Audrey Lennard on October 10, 1953, with whom he had two children, Linda and William Jr. He attended Nelson High School in Nelson, BC and the Labour College of Canada at the University of Montreal in 1967.

William, or "Bill" as he is more commonly known, first entered politics in 1943, when as a teenager he acted as a runner between polling stations and the campaign headquarters of Herbert Herridge, CCF MLA for Rossland-Trail. After moving to Revelstoke in 1952, he became an organizer for the CCF at the constituency level and worked on the 1952 Vincent Segur election campaign. In 1960 King served as campaign manager for the late George Hobbs, who won the Revelstoke-Slocan seat for the CCF.

King was first elected to the BC provincial legislature in the Revelstoke-Slocan constituency on July 15, 1968 in a by-election, but was defeated in the 1969 General Election.

He was re-elected on August 30, 1972 as part of the NDP government. When Premier Dave Barrett appointed his Cabinet on September 15, 1972, he named King as Minister of Labour. During his time as Minister of Labour, King introduced BC's first Labour Code, Human Rights legislation, and was the first to appoint women to key civil service positions in BC.