Before becoming Delta South's MLA, Ian Paton was a farmer, auctioneer, volunteer and Delta councillor. Discover the family history, agricultural roots and community contributions behind one of Delta's most familiar public figures.
From a family dairy farm to the British Columbia Legislature, the story of a lifelong Delta resident whose family has helped shape the community for generations.
By Robert Skinner | Delta City News | October 27, 2026
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For many residents of Ladner and Tsawwassen, Ian Paton is a familiar name. He has been a farmer, an auctioneer, a volunteer, a Delta councillor and, since 2017, the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Delta South.
But behind the familiar political figure is a family story that reaches back generations, to a time when Delta was a much smaller agricultural community and neighbours worked together to build many of the institutions residents rely upon today.
To understand Ian Paton, it helps to begin not at the Legislature in Victoria, but on a family farm in East Delta.
Ian Paton was born in 1956 on the Delta farm where he would eventually raise his own family.
His grandfather, John Paton, established the family's farming roots in the community. His father, Ian Paton Sr., continued the agricultural tradition, operating a dairy farm while building a career in agricultural business.
In an introductory speech to the British Columbia Legislature in June 2017, Paton described the unusual continuity of his life: he had grown up on the same farm where he was still living more than six decades later.
The property included a heritage house dating to approximately 1905, where his mother lived, and another family home built around 1930.
It was an upbringing closely connected to the rhythms of farm life, livestock, machinery, changing seasons and the responsibilities that come with operating a family agricultural business.
For Paton, farming was not simply an occupation he discovered as an adult. It was the environment in which he grew up and the foundation of much of his professional and community life.
The Paton family's influence in Delta extended well beyond agriculture.
Ian's father was a professional agrologist, a graduate of the University of British Columbia and, during the 1980s, chair of British Columbia's Agricultural Land Commission.
He was also involved in community initiatives that helped shape Delta.
One example was the creation of an early community ice arena. In the 1960s, when Delta lacked a local ice facility for young people, Ian Paton Sr. joined other farmers and Ladner businesspeople in finding a solution.
They helped convert a former aircraft hangar at Boundary Bay Airport into an ice arena where local children could play hockey, figure skate and participate in curling.
His father was also among the community members who worked toward establishing a hospital in Delta.
The family's connection with Delta Hospital became particularly strong.
Ian's mother, Marge Paton, volunteered with the hospital auxiliary for decades, beginning before the hospital itself was built. His sister, Glenda, worked as a registered nurse at Delta Hospital for 27 years.
In his 2017 legislative address, Paton spoke with pride about his family's involvement in these institutions.
It was a family history in which community service was regarded as a responsibility rather than simply an occasional activity.
After growing up in Delta, Paton attended the University of British Columbia, graduating in 1978 with a degree in physical education.
His original intention was to become a teacher.
He completed his teaching qualifications and spent approximately a year pursuing that profession before deciding that his future lay back on the family farm.
He returned to Delta and joined his father in the dairy farming and auction businesses.
The decision would shape the next several decades of his working life.
Rather than following a conventional professional career away from home, Paton chose to continue the family agricultural tradition while developing a business career of his own.
For more than 30 years, Paton worked in the dairy farming and agricultural auction industries.
The family business involved cattle, livestock and farm equipment, giving him firsthand experience with the practical and financial realities of agriculture.
He also became involved in livestock auction operations in Abbotsford, working with business partners at a cattle stockyard.
Over the years, his auctioneering experience extended to horse sales, agricultural equipment and occasional work with other auction companies, including Ritchie Bros.
Auctioneering is a specialized profession requiring quick thinking, confidence, a strong voice and the ability to communicate with an audience.
For Paton, the profession was another family inheritance.
His father had attended auctioneering school in Mason City, Iowa, in 1953 to learn the trade and supplement the family's farming income.
Ian followed in his footsteps.
Those skills eventually became valuable well beyond the auction yard.
Paton's auctioneering experience provided an opportunity to contribute to charitable fundraising throughout British Columbia.
Over the years, he volunteered his services at fundraising dinners, galas and community auctions, helping organizations raise substantial amounts of money.
Among the beneficiaries he identified were Canuck Place, the Canadian Cancer Society, Alzheimer's organizations, Delta Hospital, Variety, guide dog charities and chambers of commerce.
In his 2017 legislative remarks, Paton estimated that his volunteer auctioneering had helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charitable causes.
He also emphasized that he did not charge for his services at these fundraising events.
It was a practical way to combine his business experience with community service.
One of Paton's notable community projects involved the East Delta Community Hall.
Built in 1928, the historic hall on Ladner Trunk Road had long been a gathering place for the agricultural community.
In 1992, a serious arson fire nearly destroyed the building.
With its future uncertain, some suggested that the damaged structure should simply be demolished.
Paton, neighbour David Terpsma and a group of farmers and community volunteers chose another course.
They organized an effort to restore the building, contributing time, labour and resources over approximately 18 months.
The restoration preserved an important community landmark.
In recognition of the volunteers' efforts, the group received a municipal Citizen of the Year award in 1993.
Paton later served as president of the East Delta Community Hall Society.
The project reflected a community tradition familiar to many longtime Delta residents: when something important needed to be done, neighbours came together to do it.
The East Delta Community Hall was only one of Paton's community interests.
Over the years, he has been associated with numerous local organizations and causes.
He served as a volunteer firefighter with Delta's Hall 4 and has been involved with the BC Youth in Agriculture Foundation.
His volunteer connections have included the Delta Hospital Foundation, REACH Child and Youth Development Society and the Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust.
These organizations represent different aspects of community life, from healthcare and children's services to agricultural education and environmental stewardship.
His wife, Pam, has also been active in the community, including service in a leadership role with the Delta Hospital Foundation.
Together, the couple have maintained strong connections to the local organizations and institutions that support Delta residents.
Despite a public career that eventually took him to Victoria, Paton's personal life has remained closely connected to his family and the Delta farm.
He and his wife, Pam, have two children, Tom and Jamie.
In his 2017 address to the Legislature, he also spoke affectionately about his two granddaughters, Maddy and Ainsley, along with his brothers Bryce and Dave and sister Glenda.
He credited Pam with playing a major role in his political career, including managing his first provincial election campaign.
His father, who died approximately a decade before Paton's election to the Legislature, remained an important influence.
The combination of family, farming and community service provides much of the background to Paton's public identity.
After decades of involvement in farming, business and volunteer organizations, Paton entered municipal politics in 2010.
He was elected to Delta council, beginning a new chapter in public service.
His background made him particularly familiar with agricultural issues, but his council responsibilities extended into other important areas of municipal government.
He chaired Delta's Agricultural Advisory Committee and Dikes and Drainage Committee.
He also served as a council liaison to the Delta Farmers' Institute and Ladner Business Association and participated in regional planning and agricultural discussions.
These roles exposed him to the increasingly complex challenges facing Delta.
The municipality was no longer simply a collection of farming and residential communities. It had become a major centre for transportation, industry, international trade and regional growth.
Questions involving farmland preservation, flooding, development, transportation and infrastructure were becoming more difficult.
Paton's years on council provided experience with those issues from the municipal perspective.
They also introduced him to the workings of government beyond the agricultural industry in which he had spent most of his professional life.
In May 2017, Paton was elected to the British Columbia Legislature as the MLA for Delta South, representing the BC Liberal Party.
The move from municipal to provincial politics was a significant step.
As an MLA, he became responsible for representing the interests of Delta South residents while participating in debates and decisions affecting the entire province.
His agricultural experience proved particularly relevant.
He became involved in provincial discussions about agriculture, food production, farmland preservation and the Agricultural Land Reserve.
Over his legislative career, he has served on committees dealing with health and agriculture and held opposition critic responsibilities related to agriculture and food.
His professional background provided practical knowledge of an industry that remains essential to British Columbia's economy but is often poorly understood outside farming communities.
Throughout his provincial career, Paton has maintained a particular interest in the future of agriculture.
His work has taken him beyond Delta to farming communities across British Columbia.
He has spoken about challenges involving farmland preservation, irrigation, agricultural regulation, transportation and the effects of wildfires on producers.
These issues have a direct connection to his own experience.
Having worked in dairy farming and livestock auctions, Paton understands the importance of operating costs, access to land, transportation and the financial pressures that agricultural businesses face.
His public comments have frequently reflected concern about the gradual loss of productive farmland to other uses.
In Delta, where agricultural land exists alongside port facilities, industrial areas, major highways and expanding residential communities, these competing demands are particularly visible.
Paton's provincial political career has unfolded during a period of substantial change in British Columbia politics.
First elected as a BC Liberal in 2017, he was re-elected in 2020.
He remained associated with the party as it became BC United, before joining the BC Conservatives ahead of the 2024 provincial election.
In 2026, Paton briefly left the Conservative caucus amid internal political disagreements before returning to the party later that year.
These changes form part of his political history, although they are only one chapter in a much longer personal and professional story.
His political career has continued through several elections, changing party structures and shifting political circumstances.
The October 2026 provincial election marked another chapter in Paton's years of public service.
He again stood as the BC Conservative candidate for Delta South and received strong support in the initial vote count.
For many voters, Paton was already a familiar figure, having represented the constituency provincially since 2017 and having served on Delta council before that.
The election provides an opportunity to revisit his history, but it does not define the full story of his life.
His connections to Delta extend back long before he first appeared on a ballot.
There are many ways to describe Ian Paton.
He is a former dairy farmer, an auctioneer, a university graduate, a former municipal councillor and a longtime provincial representative.
He is also a husband, father, grandfather and member of a family whose history is closely connected to the development of Delta.
His grandfather established the family's agricultural roots. His father combined farming and business with community building. His mother devoted decades to volunteer service, and Ian carried those traditions into his own professional and public life.
The story of Ian Paton is therefore about more than politics.
It is also a story about the changing character of Delta itself, from a farming community where families helped build local institutions to a modern municipality connected to international trade, major transportation networks and a growing metropolitan region.
Through those changes, the Paton family farm has remained a constant in his life.
And perhaps that is the most distinctive part of his story.
After decades in business, community service and public office, Ian Paton's life remains rooted in the same Delta farmland where it began.
Editor's note: This profile draws on Ian Paton's personal remarks to the British Columbia Legislature in June 2017, published biographical records, City of Delta records and community organization reporting. Family details are presented as documented at the time of those sources.
Robert Skinner - Publisher- Editor
Delta City News — Licensed Partner of the WBN News Network
Robert is a Ladner-based business systems developer and Publisher of Delta City News. Connect with Robert on: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rlskinner/
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