After nearly 30 years of public service, Blair Lekstrom reflects on retirement and a distinguished career

DAWSON CREEK, BC -- After 30 years serving Dawson Creek and the South Peace region, Blair Lekstrom is getting ready to retire. He has been a city councillor, the mayor, an MLA, a councillor again, and finally the Chief Administrative Officer of the City of Dawson Creek.

“I love the community, and I’m not going anywhere,” said Lekstrom. “This is where they’ll plant me one day, I’m sure.”

Lekstrom has lived in Dawson Creek all his life. He first arrived on the political stage nearly 30 years ago, when he was elected to City Council in 1993.

“I just thought I had some ideas to offer, to try to make the town better,” he said.

Three years later, in 1996, he was elected mayor. The he was re-elected in 1999. But in 2001, Lekstrom left the job to become the MLA of Peace River South, taking over Jack Weisgerber’s seat.

In 2008, he was appointed Minister of Community Development. Then in 2009, he became the Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources. But a year later, he resigned from the BC Liberal caucus over the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) – a tax he actually supported.

“It was how we presented it to the people,” Lekstrom explains. “How we didn’t engage them to say, ‘this is what we want to do.’”

Lekstrom became an independent MLA for a while, but returned to the Liberals in 2011, when Christy Clark was elected premier. She then appointed him Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure.

Lekstrom says all through his time in provincial politics, he wanted to make sure Northern BC got its due. He lobbied hard for a new hospital in Dawson Creek, and when it was finally announced in 2018, Premier John Horgan – a good friend of Lekstrom’s – called him up.

“He jokingly gave me a call and said, ‘Boy, you’re there twelve years, Blair, and you couldn’t get it announced? Just wanted to let you know that I’m announcing it today,’” said Lekstrom, chuckling. “So, we had a good laugh about that, but the key is not who announces it, but that we got the hospital announced.”

Lekstrom left politics in 2013, when the travel back and forth from Victoria started to wear on him. He moved into the private sector to do consulting work – but he couldn’t stay away for long.

“I was of the opinion that we had lived well beyond our means, and we had to make some difficult decisions,” he said.

So, he ran for Dawson Creek City Council again in 2018, and won. But two years later, he was offered the CAO job, which he’d always wanted to try – saying he was excited about the challenge of actually executing on the directions from mayor and council.

Looking over his whole career, Lekstrom says he is most proud of sticking to his values and being honest with his constituents.

“They knew what they were going to get when they elected Blair Lekstrom, or cast their vote for me. I never tried to be somebody who I wasn’t,” he said.

In fact, what’s he’s really proud of isn’t his career at all, but his family. In retirement, he wants to spend time with his wife, two daughters, and five grandchildren. He also thinks he’ll continue to do volunteer work to stay involved with the city he loves.

“We live and die together up here as the Peace Region. It’s the greatest spot on earth,” said Lekstrom. “So, thank you. To everybody.”

Kevin Henderson is expected to take over as CAO before Christmas.