1. Darryl Plecas was born on in 1951 and is a Canadian politician, who was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for Abbotsford South from 2013 to 2020, and served as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 2017 to 2020.
Darryl Plecas was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in the 2013 provincial election as a member of the British Columbia Liberal Party; after 2017 he sat as an independent after the BC Liberal Party revoked his membership for accepting his election as Speaker.
In 2023, Plecas became a member of the BC NDP, but did not disclose any future political plans.
Darryl Plecas holds two degrees in Criminology from Simon Fraser University, and a doctorate in Higher Education from the University of British Columbia.
Darryl Plecas is a criminologist and emeritus faculty member at the University of the Fraser Valley, where he worked for 34 years, and helped turn the criminal justice program from a college diploma into a fully credited degree program.
Darryl Plecas served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General for Crime Reduction from June 10,2013 to January 29,2015.
Darryl Plecas was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health for Seniors on January 30,2015.
At a Liberal caucus meeting held in July 2017, shortly after the government of Christy Clark lost power following its defeat in a confidence vote, Darryl Plecas called for Clark's resignation as party leader and threatened to quit the Liberal caucus and sit as an Independent MLA if she remained.
When Darryl Plecas revealed his role in Clark's ouster to The Abbotsford News, NDP house leader Mike Farnworth approached Darryl Plecas about becoming speaker.
Darryl Plecas later told The Province that he initially had no desire to be speaker, but changed his mind after concluding that there was no basis for Liberal claims that an NDP minority government supported by the Greens would be illegitimate.
Darryl Plecas brought the matter before the Legislative Assembly Management Committee, who urged the Speaker to publicize the corruption claims.
The Darryl Plecas Report cited expenses "in the range of a million dollars" to the Legislative Assembly for personal use, in the period of 20 months between April 2017 and December 2018.
Darryl Plecas raised concern about employer malpractice by James and Lenz, and attempts to conceal information related to their high expenditures.