Doug Routley was re-elected as the MLA for Nanaimo-North Cowichan in 2020. He served as MLA for Cowichan-Ladysmith from 2005 until the riding boundaries were re-drawn, and was re-elected in 2009, 2013 and 2017. He is the Parliamentary Secretary for Forests.
Doug served as the Official Opposition critic for Citizens’ Services and deputy critic for Forests and Forest Futures. He previously served as Opposition critic for Skills Training.
Doug was born May 9, 1961, in New Westminster, B.C., and grew up in Duncan, B.C.
He comes from a family of educators and attended the public schools of the Cowichan Valley, then Camosun College, before travelling to Japan, where he lived and worked for one year.
Doug’s close friendships and connections to the Cowichan First Nation people began as a boy playing road hockey and attending school with his friends from Cowichan. He has continued building on that connection in politics, first as a school trustee and now as MLA.
Doug’s work experience is diverse and gives him a very broad understanding of so many of his constituents’ lives and challenges. Doug has experience in construction and in logging, having worked as a sawmill worker and treeplanter. He also has been a business owner and operator, school custodian and school trustee.
While in Japan, Doug taught English and studied Sumi-e, traditional Japanese ink painting. He was a bicycle racer and while training in Japan, met a bicycle manufacturer. After his return to Canada, Doug established a bicycle retail and wholesale company which had dealers throughout Canada and the U.S. Doug is still an avid cyclist, riding average of 1000 km per month. Doug is a member of the BC Masters Cycling Association and races occasionally. In 2012, he also participated in the 140km Ryder Hesjedal Tour de Victoria and the 120km Vancouver-Whistler Gran Fondo. Doug also enjoys track riding. Doug and his partner Leanne can often be seen training on the roads of mid-Vancouver Island.
Doug’s diverse background in industry, business, labour and politics gives him the understanding that working together cooperatively is the key to success.
Doug lives in Duncan with his partner, Leanne Finlayson. He has a daughter, Madeline, and a step-daughter, Brooklynne. The family enjoy cycling, hiking (with Husky dog Kato), camping and boating together.
