Michael Harcourt
Former Premier of British Columbia and Mayor of Vancouver; commentator on sustainable cities and communities.
Contributor Biography
Mr. Harcourt is the former Mayor of Vancouver, a commentator on sustainable cities and communities, and a former Premier of British Columbia. He was chair of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee for Cities and Communities which handed in its report in June 2006. He co-chaired the National Advisory Committee on the UN-HABITAT World Urban Forum, which was held in Vancouver in June 2006. 1996-2004, Mike was appointed by the Prime Minister to serve as a member of the National Round Table on the Environment and Economy where he served on the Executive Committee and Chaired the Urban Sustainability Program.
He served as a Federally appointed B.C. Treaty Commissioner. He is Honorary Chair of the International Centre for Sustainable Cities, and Co-Chair of the International Panel of Advisors (2007). He serves as a consultant to Translink B.C. He is Associate Director at the Centre for Sustainability, Continuing Studies at University of British Columbia (UBC). He is honorary co-chair at the University of British Columbia’s Advisory Council on sustainability, as well is on Canadian Electricity Association’s Sustainable Electricity Program Advisory Panel, and is Chairman of Quality Urban Energy Systems of Tomorrow (QUEST) 2009 – the City of Vancouver's Greenest City Action Team.
He is a passionate believer in the power of cities and communities to improve the human condition. A near fatal accident in 2002 only strengthened his resolve to contribute to the transformation of cities and communities around the world through the principles of sustainability, particularly in relation to social inclusion in the broadest sense.
In 2005, he was honored to receive the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service and in 2006 was awarded the Canadian Urban Institute’s Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2007 he was the Walter Bean Visiting Professor on the Environment at the University of Waterloo. In November 2008, UBC awarded him with the Alumni Achievement Award of Distinction for contributions to B.C., Canada and the world. He holds an honourary Doctor of Law from Simon Fraser University.
While he was Premier, Al Gore applauded him for permanently preserving the jointly shared ecosystem of the Tatshenshini River and Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park in Northwest B.C. saying, “Premier Harcourt acted boldly and with foresight to protect and preserve the natural heritage of one of the world’s most important rivers and magnificent regions."
