William Bennett (born 1950) is a former Canadian politician. From 2001 until 2017, Bennett represented the riding of Kootenay East in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. As part of the BC Liberal Party caucus, he served in several cabinet posts under Premiers Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark.

Bennett grew up in Campbellford, Ontario, where his parents owned a furniture store.^[2] After leaving school at grade 9, he found work in his late teens at a fly-in fishing lodge near the Northern Ontario town of Red Lake.^[2] He later returned to school, graduating from the University of Guelph in 1976 with an honours degree in English, and went on to own and operate fly-in fishing and hunting lodges in the Northwest Territories and Manitoba.^[1][3]

He then returned to Campbellford with his family and attended law school at Queen's University, earning a law degree in 1992.^[2][3] He subsequently moved to Cranbrook, British Columbia, and practiced law there beginning in 1994.^[2] He had also served as president of the Cranbrook Chamber of Commerce and the Kootenay Bar Association.^[1][3]

He married his wife Beth in 1974; they have two sons together.^[1][3]

Bennett ran for the BC Liberals in the 2001 provincial election, defeating the incumbent New Democratic candidate Erda Walsh to become member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for East Kootenay.^[4] After being re-elected at the 2005 provincial election, he was appointed to cabinet by Premier Gordon Campbell as Minister of State for Mining,^[5] but resigned from the post in February 2007 after it was revealed that he had sent a profanity-laden email to a constituent.^[2][6] He then returned to cabinet as Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts in June 2008.^[5]

In the 2009 provincial election, Bennett was re-elected MLA in the renamed riding of Kootenay East.^[3] He was appointed Minister of Community and Rural Development that June, then became Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources in June 2010.^[5] Amidst the controversial introduction of the Harmonized Sales Tax, Bennett openly criticized Campbell's leadership in an October 2010 interview with the Vancouver Sun.^[2] Campbell initially stated that he had no plans to remove Bennett from cabinet;^[7] however, Bennett was dismissed from his post on November 17,^[5] and removed from the Liberal party caucus two days later.^[8]

He sat in the legislature as an independent member following his ouster from caucus, and supported George Abbott in the subsequent Liberal leadership election to replace the outgoing Campbell.^[2][4] He was re-instated into the Liberal caucus in April 2011 after Christy Clark took over as premier and Liberal leader,^[9] and was appointed Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development by Clark in September 2012.^[10][11]

Following his re-election as Kootenay East MLA in 2013, he was appointed as Minister of Energy and Mines and Minister Responsible for Core Review that June.^[10] He announced in June 2016 that he would not run in the following year's provincial election.^[4][12] After finishing his term as MLA in 2017, he received appointments to the boards of directors of Eagle Plains Resources and Copper Creek Gold.^[13][14]

Besides his cabinet posts, he had also served as chair of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, and the Special Committee on Cosmetic Pesticides while in legislature.^[3]