Born in Enderby, Abbott grew up in the Shuswap community of Sicamous and attended the Okanagan College's Salmon Arm campus before transferring to the University of British Columbia, where he received his Bachelor of Arts.

[3][4] He was also elected to the board of the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District in 1980, serving as its chair at one point, and returned to the Okanagan College's Salmon Arm campus to work as a political science instructor.

[7] In this role, he worked with industry, environmental, and First Nations groups to complete the Great Bear Rainforest agreement which included a move to ecosystem-based management.

[7] On November 25, 2010, George Abbott announced he was running for the leadership of the BC Liberal Party to succeed Gordon Campbell, and resigned his cabinet post.

[16][17] During the campaign he stated he would move the date of the harmonized sales tax referendum from September 24, 2011 to no later than June 24 of that year, and increase the minimum wage.

[18] He called for a review or the $6 million payment made for expenses incurred by convicted Liberal aides Robert Virk and David Basi in association with the BC Rail trial.

[22][24] In 2013, Abbott re-enrolled at the University of Victoria, where he began writing a thesis on the impact of the federal–provincial division of powers on aboriginal policy.