[2] Lake was born in Odiham, Hampshire, England, to a father, Morris, who worked as an electrician in the Royal Air Force.

During the campaign, he noted that he was in favour of installing residential water meters,[8] a moratorium on new big-box stores until an impact assessment was completed, and he was opposed to using referendums to make tough decisions.

[9] With eight council seats in contention, Lake finished in ninth place with 5,400 votes[10] and claimed $4,562 in election expenses.

[11] Lake complained afterwards, and sought legal advice, regarding illegal advertising by the third-place finisher, Brian Husband, who ran radio ads on election day.

[19][20] He differed from the rest of council by resisting the $3-million commitment to build the Kamloops Wildlife Park,[21] opposing the renaming of Overlanders Bridge to the Phil Gaglardi Bridge[22] (which approved by the rest of council but later rescinded[23]), and favouring higher parking fees in the downtown area.

[24] He took time in 2004 to work as Liberal John O'Fee's campaign manager in the federal election which they lost to Conservative Betty Hinton.

[31] However, WestJet resisted flying to Kamloops by demanding guaranteed revenue[32] and federal MP Betty Hinton and provincial MLA Kevin Krueger both saw highway upgrades as higher priorities.

Premier Campbell did not include Lake in the cabinet but he was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary for the Ranching Task Force under the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands.

[45] The Ranching Task Force began its work in July to review the province's role in the ranching industry, an industry which had been facing setbacks such as declining cattle prices and fewer exports following a Bovine spongiform encephalopathy outbreak and a strengthen currency value (relative to the US dollar).

[47] Lake was also appointed as the convener the Select Standing Committee on Legislative Initiatives, which had not met in over a decade and was not expected to meet any time soon.

[49] Lake caused controversy in May 2010 when he misspoke saying that the Committee on Legislative Initiatives had the power to refuse the petition based on unclear wording[51] and in August when he refused to accept the petition as delivered by the proponents (Lake would only accept it from the Chief Electoral Officer who was holding it pending the resolution of a court challenge by pro-HST consortium).

[54] Lake aggressively responded to the recall challenge by calling its organizer a "bully" and "petulant child"[55] and issuing news releases quoting derogatory comments made by others involved in the Fight HST group.

[61] The task force was given until March 25 to provide a report and recommendations to the Ministry of Agriculture, however there were complications as the delays occurred as an unexpected volume of public input from around the world had to be considered[62] and the criminal RCMP investigation made key evidence and witnesses unavailable.

When the 39th Parliament resumed with a third session and Clark as premier, she promoted Lake to Minister of Environment and made him the deputy government house leader.

[70] The issue about BC's participation in the Western Climate Initiative was reviewed by the entire cabinet,[71] who decided to continue with WCI's planned cap-and-trade system.

[76] To compensate for the slow action on the task force, the opposition environment critic Rob Fleming re-introduced his own Species at Risk Protection Act in June 2011.

[77] As the Minister of Environment, Lake had to defend the Environmental Assessment Office following a review by the Auditor General who identified short-comings[78] and continued criticism regarding the rigorousness of the environmental review process as a proposed copper-gold mine, which was approved by Lake's predecessor, was refused by the federal government.

[79] Lake came under criticism from fellow BC Liberal MLAs John Les, John van Dongen, and Donna Barnett after Lake approved Metro Vancouver's waste-management plan which included proposals to incinerate garbage; Les and van Dongen felt the plan would significantly lower air quality in their Fraser Valley ridings and Barnett advocated for continuing the hauling of garbage to the Cache Creek landfill in her riding.

[80][81] Lake did not seek re-election in 2017 following the 40th Parliament of British Columbia and instead accepted a position with the medical cannabis company The Hydropothecary Corporation.

In April 2019 he announced his intention to seek the Liberal Party nomination in the Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo riding for the 2019 Canadian federal election.