Dave Barrett, 87, on Feb. 2, in Victoria, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s. Barrett is best known for leading British Columbia’s first NDP government from Sept. 1972 to Dec. 1975. Under Barrett, the province’s Agricultural Land Reserve, public auto insurer ICBC, a provincial ambulance system, Pharmacare, and French immersion in B.C. schools were instituted. After just three years forming government, Barrett called a snap election and the Social Credit party swept back into power. The flamboyant and wise-cracking Barrett went on to take a turn as host of the CJOR-AM Vancouver morning talk show from 1984-87, before re-entering politics as the MP for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca in 1988. He held the riding until 1993, then took up leadership of the commission investigating Vancouver’s leaky condo issue. Barrett was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 2005 and a member of the Order of B.C. in 2012.
Manfred Joehnck, 64, on Feb. 5, in North Battleford. Joehnck was a Saskatchewan news veteran, working over the years as the longtime news director at CKRM-AM Regina and as a news anchor on CTV Regina from 2001 to 2011. He had been with MBC (Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation) since 2012, where he served as the network’s legislative correspondent and covered current affairs. Joehnck died suddenly while covering the murder trial of Gerald Stanley in the Battlefords.
