Carole James - [ NDP ]
By Duncan Speight | April 6, 2005

When she won the leadership of the B.C. NDP in 2003, Carole James said her biggest challenge was to win back British Columbians who had turned away from the NDP.

James replaced interim leader Joy MacPhail – calling for an end to the polarization in B.C. politics and the restoration of balance in the political system.

She took over a party that barely survived the 2001 election, losing all but two seats. She herself had run in Victoria-Beacon Hill for a seat, where she lost by 35 votes.

After the election, James decided to quit her job as B.C.'s Director of Child Care Policy. And in early 2002, she sold her house in Victoria, and moved to Prince George to become the director of child and family services for the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council.

She then went on to become the coordinator with the Northern Aboriginal Authority for Families.

When Joy MacPhail announced she was stepping down as interim leader of the NDP in 2003, James says she received calls from supporters urging her to seek the party's top job.

She says she wasn't sure what to do, so she and her partner went camping together at isolated Moose Lake in northern B.C. to consider their options.

James says she eventually accepted the advice of a native elder who told her she had a responsibility to use her leadership ability.

She entered the NDP leadership race, and defeated five other candidates – winning on the second ballot.

Since her election, the NDP's popularity has surged – with the party at times running ahead of the governing Liberals.

James' background

James was born in London, England in 1957. Her mother moved back to her home in Saskatchewan shortly after her birth and married the baby's father, and then had a second child.

But her parents separated a short time later. And James, her baby sister and her mother moved in with her grandparents in North Battleford.

The children were left with her grandparents during the week as James' mother studied for a teaching degree at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon – hitch-hiking back and forth between the two cities on weekends.

After the grandmother lost a leg to frostbite in a bad storm, the family decided in 1962 to move to Victoria for the milder climate.

There, James was raised in an extended family that included her mother, her sister, her grandparents – and over the years, about 40 foster children.

James graduated from high school in Victoria and then moved to Alberta with her first husband where they worked in an institution for the mentally handicapped.

She didn't stay in Alberta long, moving back to Victoria to work at a similar institution. But she later left that job to have her two children.

She then got involved in their pre-school parents' group. And in 1990, she was elected as a Greater Victoria School Board trustee, becoming the chair for three years in 1992, and from 1996 to 1998.

She went to complete five terms as president of the B.C. School Trustees Association. And she also served at the national level as the vice-president of the Canadian School Boards Association.

In 1997, she tangled successfully with the then-NDP government over its plan to reduce the number of school districts from 79 to just 37.

She held hearings around the province, getting feedback from parents, teachers and trustees. She then used that information to force the education minister to compromise on a reduction to 59 districts.

James is the mother of two adult children. And she has also been a foster parent for 20 years, caring for children and adults with special needs, many of them of First Nations heritage.

She says a genealogical search turned up the fact that her birth father was of Metis heritage, which has strengthened her connection to her foster children.

Last year, James married her partner, Albert Gerow, who is a First Nations artist, a former RCMP officer and a member of the Burns Lake Band. He now works as a community development consultant.