Brian Smith (Canadian politician)

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Brian Ray Douglas Smith, KC, OBC (born July 7, 1934) is a Canadian politician and business executive. He served on Oak Bay municipal council for about ten years and was mayor of Oak Bay from 1974 to 1979. He was elected to the British Columbia Legislative Assembly in 1979 as the Social Credit member for Oak Bay–Gordon Head and was re-elected in 1983 and 1986.

In the government of Bill Bennett, Smith was Minister of Education and then Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources, and he was appointed Attorney General on May 26, 1983. In 1986 he ran for the Social Credit leadership and finished second to Bill Vander Zalm on the fourth ballot. After Vander Zalm became premier, Smith kept the Attorney General post.

On June 28, 1988, he resigned as Attorney General in a dramatic speech to the Legislature, saying Vander Zalm did not respect the independence of the attorney general’s office and citing the Toigo affair and abortion as examples. He opposed Vander Zalm’s plan to split the ministry, arguing it would weaken the ministry’s independence. He stressed the resignation should not be seen as a challenge to Vander Zalm’s leadership and he remained in caucus. It was the first time an attorney general had resigned over differences with a premier since 1901.

When the government later created the separate Ministry of Solicitor General, Smith criticized the move as slowing decision-making and hindering the fight against crime. He announced his resignation from the Legislature on October 19, 1989, effective November 15, 1989, and then became chairman of CN Rail, a position he held until 1994. He later chaired BC Hydro from 1996 to 2001. In 2016 he was appointed to the Order of BC for his long service and contributions to sports, education, law and business.