Owen held several prominent posts including as B.C.’s ombudsman and as a Liberal MP and cabinet minister. He has died at age 74
Stephen Owen, a lawyer, civil servant and politician admired for his thoughtful and empathetic approach to some of the most difficult debates in British Columbia and Canada, has died at 74.
“He was burned in effigy by some. It was very hot,” recalled David Helliwell, a tech entrepreneur and environmentalist who became Mr. Owen’s policy director for the ministries he ran when he was a federal MP and cabinet minister in the early 2000s. “He talked about his work with the CORE commission a lot and about framing those hard conversations.”
His favourite poem and moral anchor was a Rudyard Kipling piece that focused on staying steady amid conflict and the importance of being able to “keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.”As federal public-works minister, Mr. Owen set up the Gomery Commission to examine the Liberal sponsorship scandal; its findings proved ultimately damaging to the party.
“My dad lived his life with an unwavering sense of decency, honesty and optimism, and believing unconditionally in the value and potential of public – an approach to life that we can all learn from.” He was appointed B.C. ombudsman in 1986 by an all-party committee, when the Social Credit government was in control. He was put in charge of the CORE commission in 1992 by then-NDP premier Mike Harcourt.
After resigning from political life in 2007, he took on the job of vice-president for external, legal and community relations at the University of British Columbia until 2012.
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