Early career and opposition

In 1994, de Jong was recruited by Gordon Campbell of the British Columbia Liberal Party to compete against new Social Credit Party (Socred) leader Grace McCarthy in a by-election in Matsqui. The Socreds had represented the riding for 42 years until de Jong defeated McCarthy by a margin of 42 votes.^[1] McCarthy, who had been attempting to rebuild the Socreds, resigned as party leader shortly after her by-election loss, and the party failed to elect any members in the subsequent provincial election in 1996.

De Jong was a member of the Official Opposition between 1994 and 2001, serving as opposition critic for aboriginal affairs at one point.^[6] He was regarded as very vocal on the opposition benches; he was ejected from the legislative assembly for calling then-Attorney General Colin Gabelmann a "liar" and was later sued for libel by federal cabinet minister Herb Dhaliwal.^[1]

Campbell ministry

In the 2001 election, de Jong ran in the new riding of Abbotsford-Mount Lehman. After his party was victorious in the election, de Jong was appointed Minister of Forests in the new Campbell ministry.^[7][8] In 2004, de Jong removed 70,000 hectares of land from Tree Farm Licence 44 with no compensation from the owner and against the recommendations of ministry staff; this effectively privatized what had been Crown Land without compensation to the province. The changes made allowed the wood to be exported as raw logs rather than lumber, and also allowed for eventual development of the land. The land in question was under dispute by the Hupacasath First Nation and also the Tseshaht First Nation; no consultation took place and the bands had since filed legal action.^[9][10] He has also been linked to other such privatizations of Crown forest land.^[11] After the 2005 election, de Jong became Minister of Labour and Citizens' Services.^[8][12] The following year, in a small cabinet shuffle, he became Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation.^[8][13]

In the 2009 election, de Jong ran in the newly created riding of Abbotsford West. Following the election, in which the BC Liberals remained in office, de Jong was named Attorney General.^[8][14] On two occasions in 2010, de Jong stepped in as Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General while Kash Heed was under investigation for campaign violations.^[8][15] That same year, de Jong faced controversy when he approved the payment of $6 million in legal fees for Liberal Party insiders David Basi and Robert Virk, who pleaded guilty to charges of breach of trust and accepting benefits in connection with the sale of BC Rail in 2003. De Jong defended his actions saying the government's Legal Services Branch had recommended they not try to collect the funds since the aides did not have any money.^[16]

On December 1, 2010, de Jong announced that he would seek the leadership of the BC Liberal Party to replace the outgoing Gordon Campbell, and resigned his cabinet post.^[17] During his campaign, he advocated for the provincial voting age to be lowered to 16.^[18] He placed fourth in the 2011 leadership election, which was won by Christy Clark.^[19][20]

Clark ministry

In Clark's initial cabinet, de Jong was named Minister of Health.^{[5][21][22][23]} He was appointed Minister of Finance on September 5, 2012,^[24] and in addition briefly served as Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism between March and June 2013.^[21] He retained the finance portfolio following his re-election in 2013. From 2013 to 2017, de Jong tabled five consecutive balanced budgets.^[25]

De Jong was re-elected in 2017 and remained as Minister of Finance.^[26] He finished his term as minister that July,^[21] following the Liberal minority government's defeat in a confidence vote on June 29.^[27]

Return to opposition

With Christy Clark resigning as leader, de Jong announced on September 26, 2017 his intention to run in the 2018 BC Liberal leadership election.^[28] His campaign placed an emphasis on education, including proposals to extend full-day kindergarten to four-year-olds, and to provide $500 each year to a child's registered education savings plan.^[29] On January 18, 2018, de Jong and rival candidate Andrew Wilkinson announced they had struck a deal to support each other as their second-ballot choices.^[30] De Jong placed fifth in a field of six, but his alliance with Wilkinson was critical to the latter's victory.^[31]

He was re-elected in 2020,^[32] and was named shadow minister for Attorney General.^[4] He announced in February 2024 that he would not seek another term as MLA in that year's provincial election, and stated that he was considering running for the Conservative Party of Canada in the next federal election.^[33][34] On April 17, 2024, he announced he was seeking the Conservative nomination for Abbotsford-South Langley.