1. Michael Franklin Harcourt OC was born on January 6,1943 and is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 30th premier of British Columbia from 1991 to 1996, and before that as the 34th mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia's largest city, from 1980 to 1986.
Mike Harcourt was student council president at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School and studied at the University of British Columbia, where he graduated BA and LLB.
Mike Harcourt founded and became the first director of the Vancouver Community Legal Assistance Society, reputedly Canada's first community law office.
Mike Harcourt served as a Vancouver alderman from 1973 to 1980.
Mike Harcourt was first elected as a member of the Electors' Action Movement.
Mike Harcourt left the party in 1976 after he lost the party's nomination for mayor to Jack Volrich.
Mike Harcourt was Mayor of Vancouver from 1980 to 1986.
Mike Harcourt was first elected to the British Columbia Legislature in the 1986 British Columbia election.
Mike Harcourt became the leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party and the leader of the Official Opposition in the following year.
Mike Harcourt was considered to be a moderate within the ranks of his social democratic party.
Mike Harcourt reacted by abandoning his social democratic policy and moving to the right on welfare.
Mike Harcourt fired Joan Smallwood as Minister of Social Services, replaced her with Joy MacPhail, reduced welfare rates, and made it more difficult for families to claim assistance.
Mike Harcourt later expressed regret for those comments by blaming a "relentless" coverage of welfare fraud causes by the media for the action.
The resulting BC Benefits welfare reform package, which included budget cuts, new restrictions, and a reduction in the basic rate to $500 per month, the same it had been when Mike Harcourt took office, proved hard to accept for the NDP and had a lasting effect on its reputation by hampering its attempts to condemn later governments for undertaking similar welfare crackdowns.
The NDP government under Mike Harcourt entered into a contract with Carrier Lumber to build roads and construct new mills to handle an increased volume of wood because of the infestation of the mountain pine beetle.
On May 13,1992, Mike Harcourt ignored the contract between his government and Carrier Lumber and promised several First Nations that no timber would be harvested and that no roads would be built without their agreement.
Mike Harcourt resigned as premier in February 1996 as the result of "Bingogate", a scandal in which David Stupich, a former NDP member of the Legislative Assembly and member of Parliament from BC, used money raised by a charity bingo to fund the party.
Mike Harcourt was succeeded as premier by Glen Clark in 1996.
Mike Harcourt did not run for another term as MLA in the 1996 British Columbia general election; Jenny Kwan succeeded him as the NDP candidate and later MLA of Vancouver-Mount Pleasant.
Mike Harcourt was involved in research relating to sustainable development and cities.
Mike Harcourt was severely injured in a near-fatal fall at his cottage on Pender Island in November 2002, which resulted in a severe spinal-cord injury.
Mike Harcourt spent several months at the world-renowned facility GF Strong.
Mike Harcourt was named as a special advisor to Prime Minister Paul Martin on cities on December 12,2003.
In 2011, Mike Harcourt joined five other former mayors of Vancouver to urge the federal government to halt its efforts to close Insite.
Mike Harcourt revealed in April 2014 that he had allowed his NDP membership to lapse and now considers himself an independent.
Mike Harcourt had repeatedly supported the legalization of cannabis and, in May 2014, announced that he would be an advisor to True Leaf Medicine, a Vernon-based start-up company seeking Health Canada approval to produce and sell medicinal marijuana.
Mike Harcourt admitted previous personal use of marijuana in the 1960s and 1970s.