David Anderson

David A. Anderson, (born August 16, 1937) is a former Canadian cabinet minister. Anderson was born in Victoria, British Columbia. He was educated at Victoria College, Aiglon College and at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law; he graduated in 1962 with a LLB. During his UBC days Anderson won a silver medal for rowing in the 1960 Olympic Games, and a silver medal in the Pan American Games in Chicago in 1959. He was also a pilot in the University Reserve of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Anderson served as a foreign service officer in the Department of External Affairs between 1962 and 1968. His posts included Indochina (International Supervisory And Truce Commissions) 1963–64, Assistant Canadian Trade Commissioner in Hong Kong, 1964–1967, and China Desk Officer in Ottawa 1967–68. In Hong Kong, Anderson attended the Institute of Oriental Studies of the University of Hong Kong and obtained the British Foreign Officer Higher Standard Certificate in Mandarin. He was elected Liberal MP for the constituency of Esquimalt—Saanich on Vancouver Island in the 1968 federal election. Four years later he switched to provincial politics, and was elected leader of the provincial Liberal Party (April 1972), then the third party in the provincial legislature with 5 out of 55 seats. Although elected himself in the 1972 election, representing the constituency of Victoria, the Liberal Party did not increase its seat total. Anderson served as Member of the Legislative Assembly until his defeat in December 1975.