Blair Wilson

Blair Wilson (born May 18, 1963 in North Vancouver, British Columbia) was the Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) in the 39th Canadian parliament for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country electoral district. He was elected on January 23, 2006 in the 2006 federal election as the Liberal candidate. Shortly before the 2008 election was called, Wilson changed his allegiance to the Green Party of Canada, becoming that party's first MP following a period sitting as an Independent. He subsequently lost the election to Conservative John Weston.

Wilson is a chartered accountant who lives in West Vancouver. He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Victoria.

In the 2006 election, Wilson narrowly defeated John Weston, the Conservative Party candidate. Weston lost by 1.5%, or 976 votes. On October 28, 2007, The Province newspaper alleged that Wilson's victory was aided by unlawful, off-the-books cash spending. In December 2007 the Liberal Party announced Wilson would not be permitted to run under the Liberal Party banner following an investigation (unrelated to the investigation being conducted by Elections Canada) into Wilson's omissions of a number of legal and financial troubles during three nomination vetting processes.

Wilson became involved in politics as the organizer for "The 2010 Rally on Robson", an event held in support of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver during the City of Vancouver's plebiscite. He stood for Parliament in the 2004 federal election, narrowly losing to John Reynolds by 1687 votes in what the Conservative Party had considered a safe seat. At one point the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had declared Wilson the winner. However, when some of the more rural results came in, Reynolds won.

Bill Lougheed, Wilson's father in law (who is a defendant in a lawsuit in which Wilson's wife is a plaintiff ), made several unproven allegations in the October 28, 2007 edition of The Province, a Vancouver-based newspaper. The Province ' s article alleged that Wilson and his wife were subject to Social Services Tax Act liens on three properties and owe $2.1 million in bank mortgages, that Wilson misled the media about the true extent of his business success, exaggerating the number of restaurants he founded and claiming to have sold an accountancy business his in-laws claim closed, among other discrepancies, and that when Wilson's two restaurants, Mahoneys and Wilson's Steakhouse, closed, he was taken twice to the B.C. Employment Standards Tribunal for refusing to pay employees, was sued twice for failing to pay contractors, was twice compelled by the courts to pay GST owing,. None of the allegations have been proven and Blair denies all of the claims and has commenced legal action against the anonymous tipster who made the campaign spending allegations after an Elections Canada probe found the allegations to be false. Wilson was also taken to court by a supplier over $33,839 that was owed (this amount was later paid).

On October 28, 2007 Wilson resigned from the Liberal Party caucus for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast amid these allegations but retained his seat in the House of Commons as an independent. On July 21, 2008 Elections Canada cleared Wilson of 21 of the 24 allegations raised by The Province ' s investigation. Wilson requested readmittance to the Liberal caucus in July 2008 but was not allowed to rejoin the party. It was announced on August 30, 2008 that he had joined the Green Party of Canada as that party's first Member of Parliament, although Parliament was dissolved before he could exercise any voting privileges as a Green Party MP. He unsuccessfully ran for re-election as a Green Party representative.