MLA: John van Dongen

Dear Father,



We focus on John van Dongen today, and Psalm 40:1 comes to mind—“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.” Lord, patience is one of the hardest virtues for us to understand. You are an omnipotent God, able to help us at any moment. You define Yourself as “love,” and You gave Your Son for us to help us without reluctance. Yet, like John, we too have been impatient and in a hurry.


Today we ask for Your blessing upon John van Dongen in his role as government party whip. Give him abundant wisdom to deal with all the personalities in his party so that he is able to bring from them their personal best. Help him to be patient in his tasks, bringing peace and calm to all those about him.


Bless him with physical health and spiritual peace. We thank You for his commitment to his constituency; may he continue to serve them well. And through him bring Your strong influence to bear upon the leadership of our province so that Your will is done.


John van Dongen was re-elected as MLA to serve the new riding of Abbotsford-South in the spring of 2009.
John was first elected in 1995 in a by-election to represent the riding of Abbotsford and was re-elected in 1996, 2001, and 2005.
Mr. van Dongen currently serves as the Government Caucus Whip.
Mr. van Dongen has served as the Solicitor General and Minister of Public Safety.  He has also served as Minister of State for Intergovernmental Relations and as Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. He has also been a member of the Government Caucus Committee on Social Development.  For the past several years, John served on the Hospital Construction Committee for the new Abbotsford Hospital and Cancer Centre.

Before his election to the Legislative Assembly, Mr. van Dongen operated a dairy farm in Abbotsford. He studied agricultural economics at the University of British Columbia.
Mr. van Dongen was involved in farm organizations and businesses for almost two decades. He was on the board of directors of the B.C. Dairy Foundation, Agrifoods International Co-operative (Dairyland) the B.C. Federation of Dairymen's Association and the Federal Farm Debt Review Board.

He was Chair of the Building and Finance Committee of St. Joseph's Church in Mission.  He is also a member of the Knights of Columbus.  He is the father of two sons and has one granddaughter.