David Barrett OC OBC (October 2, 1930 – February 2, 2018) was a Canadian politician and social worker in British Columbia.

[5][6] The couple and their two children (a third would be born in 1960) returned to British Columbia in 1957 where he found work at Haney Correctional Institute as a personnel and staff training officer.

The Barrett government substantially reformed the welfare system, initiated a number of reforms such as establishing the province's Labour Relations Board, the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) in order to provide public auto insurance and the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) to protect the small supply of farmland in BC, all of which were retained by subsequent Social Credit and Liberal governments.

It also banned pay toilets, launched Pharmacare, increased the minimum wage, preserved Cypress Bowl for recreation, established the BC Ambulance Service, passed the Human Rights Code, consumer protection laws, and introduced French immersion in schools.

[6][8] Barrett's government also introduced a mineral royalties tax, which inflamed the mining industry and helped mobilize it into organizing to defeat the NDP electorally.

Businesses and other free market supporters had united the opposition to the NDP under a revitalized Social Credit with both Liberal and Conservative (MLAs) crossing the floor to join the Socreds prior to the election.

Barrett was personally defeated in the Coquitlam seat he had held since its creation in a 1965 redistribution, losing to Socred challenger George Herman Kerster by only 18 votes.

In June 1976, he was returned to the legislature in a by-election in Vancouver East, after sitting NDP MLA Robert Arthur Williams stepped aside.

On October 6, 1983, Barrett was forcibly removed from the Legislative Assembly chamber by the Serjeant-at-Arms, during a raucous debate on the Social Credit government's austerity program, for failing to abide by the Speaker's ruling and was banned from the legislature for several months.

Rival candidate Simon De Jong agreed to support Barrett in exchange for being named Party Whip.

De Jong forgot that he was wearing a microphone as part of a CBC documentary on the convention and the back-room discussions leaked to the press.

In 2000, Barrett was appointed to American Income Life Insurance Company's Labour Advisory Board as an Honorary Member.