In brief
David Barrett, OC, OBC (2 October 1930 – 2 February 2018), was a Canadian social worker and politician who served as the 26th premier of British Columbia from 1972 to 1975, leading the province's first New Democratic Party government after a surprise electoral victory over the long-incumbent Social Credit administration.
Born in Vancouver to a Jewish family of modest means, Barrett worked as a social worker and community organizer before entering politics, winning election as a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MLA in 1960 and continuing as a New Democratic Party legislator until 1983.
David Barrett was born on October 2, 1930, in Vancouver, British Columbia, the youngest of three children to Samuel and Rose Barrett. His mother, Rose (née Hyatt), had immigrated from a region north of Odessa in the Russian Empire, arriving in Canada through a Jewish refugee agency amid anti-Jewish pogroms. The Barretts were of Jewish descent, though their household maintained no formal religious practices.
Photographs
Hero photograph: Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons
