I draw much of my inspiration from my community that I’ve been proud to call home for most of my life. I was born in Victoria, attended Oak Bay High School, raised my family in Gordon Head and built a career here. As a professor at the University of Victoria since 1992, I have been fortunate enough to work with, and teach, some of the brightest minds in science.
For me, science is most exciting when it makes a positive difference in our lives. This is why I chose to become a climate scientist. To have an impact science needs to be shared, and so I have also come to believe that for science to be effective, it must be communicated effectively. This belief has informed not only my work at the university, but also my involvement in the community–particularly with children and youth.
I love working with young people and seeing their enthusiasm for education grow. I believe the better educated our children are, the more effectively they will be positioned to tackle the challenges that will shape their future. This is why, for years now, I have delivered presentations in schools and opened my labs for class field trips. I am proud to have co-created our School-Based Weather Station Network (please visit the website at victoriaweather.ca); many will have seen the weather being reported on CTV Vancouver Island from the school-based stations that I installed. Through partnerships with local teachers, this initiative helped provide learning resources and curriculum materials to assist schools in delivering the K-12 BC Science curriculum.
Outside of the classroom, I spent many of my weekends over the years coaching soccer and I have enjoyed serving on community boards such as the CRD Roundtable on the Environment and the Victoria Confederation of Parents Advisory Councils. I presently serve on the Oak Bay Police Board and the Board of the Men’s Therapy Centre.
My professional pursuits afforded me many opportunities to advise local, provincial, national and international governments from a variety of political parties on the best ways we can apply science to develop sound policies. I enjoyed this role for many years but in 2013 I realized that the time had come for me to shift from an advisory role to a more active one and so I sought election as the BC Green Party MLA for Oak Bay Gordon Head. I was elected and served as the MLA from 2013-2020 and lead the BC Green Party from 2015-2020.
My background was quite atypical for an MLA, but I made the shift from science to politics because I want to use my experience in science, policy and community outreach to offer ideas to help strengthen our province and make it resilient to future change.
Andrew Weaver
