Friday August 15, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted 3:26 pm & updated 7:15 pm | Updated August 17 & 30, 2025]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
John Maitland Twigg (1949-2025) passed away earlier this year, suddenly, after a short illness. He was 75.
Celebration of Life:
A Celebration of Life will be held for John Maitland Twigg on Saturday September 6, 2025, at Beacon Hill Park (200-block Douglas Road side, near the duck pond) in Victoria, 1 pm. Rain or shine. Extended family welcome.
Friends or colleagues from the old press gallery days and from both the NDP and BC Conservative political years are welcome to attend, as well as those who wish to honour the contributions that John Twigg made to the enduring broader lifestyle of living on Vancouver Island and in this province.
RSVP appreciated for catering and preparation but not required. For more information please email to Mary P Brooke at mpbrooke@brookeline.com who is organizing the Celebration of Life event.
In lieu of flowers, if you wish, please make a donation to a suitable Vancouver Island-based charity or non-profit society of your choice (e.g. economic development, food sustainability, democracy in politics, journalism, or a church) in memory of John Maitland Twigg. Or plant a tree in his memory or bring a piece of island coastal driftwood to the Celebration of Life.
If you have an anecdote or message of condolence for inclusion in the Celebration of Life printed program, please email your well-worded contribution to mpbrooke@brookeline.com (before September 1, 2025 if possible).
Career profile:
In his long career John Twigg was notably press secretary to BC’s first NDP Premier, Dave Barrett, during 1972-1975. That was a time of great social and economic innovation for BC.
Working on the inside team with Barrett, John was participatory in BC history-in-the-making including how the province’s Labour Relations Board was first established and the creation of the Insurance Corporation of BC (ICBC). In Barrett’s time as Premier more democracy was introduced to the BC Legislature including the introduction of question period and full Hansard transcripts of legislative proceedings. Barrett’s leadership included banning the strap in BC schools and creating the Agricultural Land Reserve.
After the defeat of the BC NDP in 1975, John relocated to Saskatchewan where he took on the job of business editor at the Regina Leader Post for several years.
John Twigg was a superb writer, editor and journalist. He returned to Victoria in 1986 and joined the BC Legislative Press Gallery (independent) and published his own Report on BC newsletter for an inside-track political, industry and business readership. He later on launched BCPolitics.com (the original one, not who might use that website now).
John Twigg was a key activator of the highly popular West Coast Trail, writing the original text for one of B.C.’s bestselling books, The West Coast Trail and Nitinat Lakes (Sierra Club, 1972), with Ken Farquharson.
“The Sierra Club of British Columbia was formed in 1969 by individuals concerned about preserving wilderness areas in British Columbia. John Twigg had the notion of making the hike on the West Coast Trail and writing about it when he was an up-‘n’-coming reporter for the Vancouver Sun, having attended UBC and worked for the Ubyssey newspaper,” wrote his brother Alan Twigg in ABC Bookworld (2015).
Having written the first guidebook about the West Coast Trail (today considered by some to be ‘the best hike in the world’), Twigg was instrumental in the preservation of that trail for hiking and outdoor recreation in BC by lobbying then NDP Lands, Forests and Water Minister Bob Williams (1972-1975) who negotiated the deal.
“As well, he edited and helped rewrite the final version of his father’s self-published book, Union Steamships Remembered, which sold out its print run and became a collectors’ item,” wrote Alan Twigg in 2015.
“John Twigg contributed the ‘Fantasy Gardens’ chapter for his brother Alan’s book, Vander Zalm: From Immigrant to Premier (Harbour) and he revealed a financial arrangement between Premier William Vander Zalm and businessman Peter Toigo that contributed to Vander Zalm’s political ouster,” wrote Alan Twigg.
Press theatre at the legislature:
John Twigg designed the news conference theatre in the basement of the BC Legislature — which is still in pretty much the same setup more than five decades later.
The press theatre that many British Columbians visually identify as the space where Dr Bonnie Henry delivered most of her announcements during the COVID pandemic was apparently known informally as the John Twigg Press Theatre in the 70s and early 80s, until he returned to the Legislature as a journalist in 1986.
Families and children:
John was first married to Merran Twigg (later Merran Proctor). They had one child, Alexandra, in 1975 and raised three children from her previous marriage.
John was later married to Mary P Brooke. They raised their family of four children in Oak Bay and Victoria (Rebecca, James, Catherine and Jennifer) as well as Alexandra for a few years.
After his divorce from Mary, John eventually remarried. He and Laura Twigg lived in Campbell River until his death this year.
John’s mother Betty Twigg passed away in July 2025; she was 98. John’s father Arthur M Twigg died at age 78 in 2001. John’s brother Alan Twigg lives in Vancouver.
John’s grandmother Gladys Paterson was the granddaughter of BC’s ninth Lieutenant Governor (1909-1914) Thomas Wilson Paterson who helped to build the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway line on Vancouver Island. He had been born in Scotland and emigrated as a child with his parents to Ontario.
John and Mary’s children are LG Paterson’s 6th-generation descendants. James and Catherine spent time hanging out with their dad John at the BC Legislative Press Gallery in the 1990s.
Trendsetter:
John was an active urban backyard food gardener, long before that was trendy.
John Twigg was also a trendsetter for doing remote journalism. He continued covering news of the BC Legislature after moving to Campbell River in the late 1990s, relying on keen insights and his extensive political network.
John was an early leader for seniors aging-in-place. He took care of his grandmother Ruby at home at her humble beachfront cottage until she passed away in 2008 at the age of 102.
Political shift:
Years of living shifted John’s political perspective. John got his political start by campaigning for long-ago Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in Vancouver.
In the 1970s John was die-hard NDP. But over the years he saw different ways of how politics could serve people that he felt wasn’t addressed quite right by the NDP. By 2017 he was forming his own political party, the BC First Party.
“I don’t have many critics. For people who disagree with my ideas I fully respect the right of people to have different opinions. I’m a democrat, I’m a libertarian, I welcome debates about policy and at 68 I’ve got a thick skin,” he told local media in Campbell River in 2017.
In 2020 — at age 71 — John Twigg ran as a BC Conservative candidate when the party was in its earliest stages of modern revival. He was already talking about what he considered to be the urgent need for British Columbia to develop financial self-sufficiency strategies and a provincial police force. He was a long-time proponent of the ‘Cascadian’ economy (alignment among BC, Oregon, Washington and California).
John was mellow about people. He was joyful about synchronicity and saw karmic outcomes as an inevitable part of life.
In his last few years he hosted a community talk show (on Shaw Cable) and was a self-styled DJ host of a Christian rock-and-roll radio show on Spirit FM.
To receive a copy of the more detailed personal version of this article (as published here on August 7, 2025) please email to editor@islandsocialtrends.com .
==== RELATED:
- BC NDP 60th anniversary website honours Dave Barrett’s government (August 2, 2021)
- EDITORIAL by John Twigg: hopefully BC will emerge even stronger after COVID-19 pandemic (April 3, 2020)
- Memorial for Dave Barrett: “BC has lost a giant” (2018)
- John Twigg bringing BC First option to North Island (April 17, 2017)
- NEWS SECTIONS: OBITUARIES | NEWS MEDIA