Introduction
Gary Collins, formerly referred to as Gary Farrell-Collins prior to 2001 (born August 22, 1963), is a Canadian former politician, who served as a BC Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1991 to 2004, representing the riding of Vancouver-Fairview. He resigned in December 2004 to become CEO of the now defunct Harmony Airways.
In opposition, Collins served as Official Opposition House Leader and held a variety of critic roles. When the Liberals formed government in 2001, he served in Gordon Campbell's cabinet as Minister of Finance and Government House Leader.
Prior to his election to the Legislative Assembly, Collins was a flight instructor at the University College of the Fraser Valley. He studied economics and political science at Simon Fraser University.He was first elected under the name Gary Farrell-Collins, but dropped his former wife's last name after his divorce.
Electoral record
| 1991 British Columbia general election: Fort Langley-Aldergrove | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | Expenditures | ||||
| Liberal | Gary Farrell-Collins | 8,663 | 43.57 | $8,849 | ||||
| New Democratic | Charles Bradford | 6,027 | 30.31 | $24,268 | ||||
| Social Credit | Dan Peterson | 4,880 | 24.54 | $40,933 | ||||
| Independent | Lila Stanford | 227 | 1.14 | $1,203 | ||||
| Western Canada Concept | William White | 87 | 0.44 | – | ||||
| Total valid votes | 19,884 | 100.00 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 243 | 1.21 | ||||||
| Turnout | 20,127 | 77.44 | ||||||
| 1996 British Columbia general election: Vancouver-Little Mountain | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |||||
| Liberal | Gary Farrell-Collins | 12,036 | 50.25 | |||||
| New Democratic | Margaret Birrell | 9,390 | 39.20 | |||||
| Progressive Democrat | Ted Phillip Bradley | 1,062 | 4.43 | |||||
| Green | Stuart Parker | 714 | 2.98 | |||||
| Reform | David J. Waine | 489 | 2.04 | |||||
| Independent | Dan Grant | 96 | 0.40 | |||||
| Social Credit | Gerold Kuklinski | 85 | 0.35 | |||||
| Natural Law | Estelle Brooke | 82 | 0.34 | |||||
| Total valid votes | 23,954 | 100.00 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 184 | |||||||
| Turnout | 67.80 | |||||||
| 2001 British Columbia general election: Vancouver-Fairview | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | Expenditures | ||||
| Liberal | Gary Farrell-Collins | 12,864 | 54.94 | $35,510 | ||||
| Green | Vanessa Violini | 5,051 | 21.57 | $3,659 | ||||
| New Democratic | Anita Romaniuk | 4,772 | 20.38 | $9,902 | ||||
| Marijuana | Ron MacIntyre | 651 | 2.78 | $735 | ||||
| People's Front | Brian Sproule | 76 | 0.33 | $57 | ||||
| Total valid votes | 23,414 | 100.00 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 142 | 0.61 | ||||||
| Turnout | 23,556 | 64.20 | ||||||