A caucus member of the British Columbia Liberal Party, he served in the cabinet of Premier Gordon Campbell as Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Treaty Negotiations from 2001 to 2005.
[1][3] After serving as a clerk in the Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa for a year,[4] he was called to the British Columbia bar in 1982 and began practising in litigation, focusing on public and aboriginal law.
[7] A resident of Richmond, British Columbia since 1984,[citation needed] Plant received the BC Liberal nomination to contest the riding of Richmond-Steveston in the 1996 provincial election, over the incumbent Allan Warnke.
[9] Plant was re-elected with 69 per cent of the vote in the 2001 election, and was appointed to the cabinet that June to serve as the Attorney General of British Columbia and Minister responsible for Treaty Negotiations as part of Campbell's first-term government.
[15] In March 2005, Plant announced his decision not to run for a second term in government at that year's provincial election, citing a wish to spend more time with his wife who was experiencing breast cancer.
Upon his exit from provincial politics, he joined the law firm of Heenan Blaikie while maintaining government appointments as senior advisor in land and resource negotiations with the Council of the Haida Nation.
The position would lead Project Civil City, the mayor's effort to enhance order in Vancouver's public areas by reducing homelessness, aggressive panhandling and the open drug market by at least 50 per cent by 2010.