Ian Waddell

Ian Gardiner Waddell (born November 21, 1942) is a Canadian politician.

Life and career

Waddell was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and as a child immigrated to Canada. He graduated from the University of Toronto with bachelor of arts in history and an LLB, a teaching diploma Ontario College of Education and a master's in international law from the London School of Economics.

He has worked for the City of Vancouver as an assistant city prosecutor and also practiced as a criminal lawyer. As head of the Vancouver Community Lawyers he was counsel on the first successful consumer class action in Canada. From his position with the community legal assistance society, Waddell went on to be counsel at ex-Justice Tom Berger’s landmark Mackenzie Valley Pipeline inquiry.

He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1979 general election, representing the riding of Vancouver Kingsway between 1979 and 1988 and the riding of Port Moody—Coquitlam between 1988 and 1993. He was a candidate to succeed Ed Broadbent as leader of the New Democratic Party in 1989. He lost his seat in the 1993 federal election. While in federal politics, he was the NDP Energy Critic at the time of the National Energy Program. Waddell also drafted Section 92A, and Section 35 the native rights amendment to the repatriated Canadian Constitution in 1981.