David Wilks (born September 23, 1959) is a Canadian politician, currently serving as the mayor of Sparwood, British Columbia following a term as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada.
In the 41st Canadian Parliament, Wilks was appointed to the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development and introduced one piece of legislation, a private members bill called An Act to amend the Criminal Code (kidnapping of young person) (C-299) which sought a minimum sentence of five years in prison for someone convicted of kidnapping a person under the age of 16.
[3][4] At the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, Wilks advocated expanding the Meth Watch program to include a registration system to track people to purchase components used in making methamphetamine.
[5] At the Regional District, Wilks advocated for the provincial government to give the proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort municipal status, removing the responsibility for public consultation and zoning from the Regional District and placing it with the province or a locally elected or appointed council.
[8] In February 2010, Jim Abbott, the local member of parliament for the past 17 years, announced he would not seek re-election.
Wilks campaign unknowingly employed a con artist who stole an undisclosed sum of money before disappearing.
During the campaign for the federal election, Wilks faced former Invermere mayor Mark Shmigelsky for NDP, and Kimberley residents Betty Aitchison, Bill Green, and Brent Bush.
Shortly after the story broke, Wilks released a statement to the effect that he was in full support of the budget bill.
[23][24] During the 2015 Canadian federal election, Wilks made headlines for saying that it was "not fair" for Canadians to expect the government to take action on missing and murdered Indigenous women and that the matter should be dealt with simply as part of "missing and murdered people" in general, without using the term "Indigenous."
Wilks ended up losing his seat to Wayne Stetski of the NDP in one of the closest races of the country by just 282 votes.