Bob Mackin
If BC Liberal Mathew Wilson gets elected May 9 in Powell River-Sunshine Coast, it could be a while before he gets to work for constituents.
That is because the son of former Liberal leader Gordon Wilson is scheduled to face his estranged wife in B.C. Supreme Court for a 10-day divorce trial beginning May 29 in Vancouver. A pre-trial conference is scheduled just two days after the election.
Mathew Wilson, a Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs lawyer, is representing himself in the proceedings that were initiated by Kimberly Wilson, a Sunshine Coast Community Services employee who filed for divorce last October. The Wilsons married in May 2002, but separated in December 2015. Mathew Wilson finally moved out of the family home in May 2016.
Mathew Wilson’s biography on the NewsLine360 website says he is “divorced (legally separated),” but, according to an April 7 Trial Brief that theBreaker has seen, Kimberly Wilson is asking for a court-ordered divorce and costs. She wants to continue joint guardianship of their two children, but with wants a judge to give her final decision making authority and primary custody.
She also seeks child and spousal support and the right to purchase Mathew Wilson’s interest in the former family home in Roberts Creek. The document claims Mathew Wilson “has failed to adequately disclose all relevant or producible documents and information throughout these proceedings in a timely manner, or at all. If the respondent does not produce the relevant documents and information, the claimant’s position is that an adverse inference must be drawn.”
Candidate Wilson’s Statement of Disclosure, filed with Elections BC, says he has no assets or liabilities, but has an unspecified interest in the Roberts Creek.
Reached on his mobile phone, Mathew Wilson referred theBreaker to his campaign office, after theBreaker had already called his campaign office to leave a message for him.
Kimberly Wilson also refused to comment.
Mathew Wilson is aiming to unseat incumbent NDP MLA Nicholas Simons. The Green Party’s Kim Darwin is the other major party candidate in the race. Gordon Wilson represented the same riding from 1991 to 2001 for the BC Liberals, Progressive Democratic Alliance and NDP, in that order.
The elder Wilson propelled the BC Liberals from political wilderness into official opposition in 1991, but his caucus-splitting affair with Okanagan East MLA Judi Tyabji led to his downfall. Gordon Campbell replaced him as leader in 1993. The couple eventually married and live in Powell River.
During the 2013 election, Gordon Wilson famously “came home” to the Liberals and endorsed Christy Clark. Clark rewarded him in November of that year with a $150,000-a-year job to promote her vision for a liquefied natural gas industry, that hasn’t materialized. The appointment is scheduled to last until February 2018, unless the Liberals lose and a new government decides to discontinue Wilson’s cabinet appointment.
Mathew Wilson’s birth mother, Elizabeth Kool, was a former Sunshine Coast school board member. Clark biographer Tyabji is Mathew Wilson’s step-mother and campaign manager. Tyabji’s son from a previous marriage, Kaz, faces a trial in Calgary this September for allegedly importing fentanyl from China in 2015. He denies the charges.
