Trudeau appoints former B.C. premier John Horgan as Canada's ambassador to Germany
Horgan, premier from 2017 to 2022, was most recently on the board of a B.C.-based coal company
Former British Columbia premier John Horgan will be Canada's next ambassador to Germany, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday.
Horgan was leader of the B.C. NDP from 2014 to 2022 and premier from 2017 to 2022. He sat as the member of the B.C. Legislative Assembly for Langford-Juan de Fuca from 2005 to 2023, before stepping down earlier this year.
In announcing his retirement from provincial politics in March, Horgan said he had no concrete plans for what would come next but that he would be open to opportunities as they arose.
In April of this year, he joined the board of Elk Valley Resources, a B.C.-based coal company.
He also publicly offered to work as a "bridge builder" for the prime minister when it came to disagreements between the federal and provincial governments around the topic of health-care funding.
"My message to the prime minister was, 'I've not fallen off the Earth. If I can be of any value to the premiers, if I can be of value to the federal government, I want to do that,'" he said in an interview with CBC News in November 2022.
On Wednesday, Trudeau called Horgan a "passionate public servant and an experienced leader," adding that he is confident the former premier will continue to advance Canadian interests abroad.
