Given Bob Simpson's history, it's not very astonishing he got into politics. What's more surprising is that he stayed.
Born in Scotland and raised in Canada from the age of 10, Simpson has zigzagged through studies, countries and jobs like he was dodging a sharpshooter.
"I think, that as human beings, we should always be evolving and taking on new challenges," said Simpson, the incumbent Cariboo North MLA. "I joke with my kids that I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up - so hopefully, I never grow up."
After graduating from a Winnipeg high school, he worked at an accounting firm before joining the Navy. He left that service and started post-secondary education before taking time off to travel around the world until an illness forced him to return to Canada.
Simpson earned a bachelor of arts in history, focusing on the evolution of Western thought, before switching over to biology and psychology.
"The way I look at it, I always pursue my passions. I've never gotten stuck in my life," said Simpson.
A teaching certificate followed, as did a marriage, and the new couple settled into teaching positions in Quesnel.
Seven years - and two children later - Simpson was on the move again, opening a consulting business, a training company and getting into retail. He settled into a position with forest products company Weldwood of Canada that he held for nine years before the political bug began to itch.
He scratched it by successfully running in the 2005 election for the NDP and followed that up with a repeat win in Cariboo North in 2009.
Simpson's time with the party was far from smooth.
Simpson was ousted from the party caucus in 2010 following his critique of a speech given by then-party leader Carole James, a move that left him initially dumbfounded, but eventually elated. He made the decision to leave the party completely and sit as an Independent shortly after.
That experience was one that even his family ultimately saw as a positive experience.
"My dad said to my daughter, 'it must be hard to see your dad going through all of this.' And my daughter turned to him and said 'no.' She said, 'I got my dad back. When he was kicked out,' she said, 'he came back to who he is. That whole system was killing him.' So she could even see the change that had occurred," Simpson said.
Two years ago, if you would have asked him what he thought of politics his answer would have been simple and frank - that it sucked.
But the MLA seems to have found his niche, now navigating the waters of the B.C. legislature in the Independent raft.
"I found being inside the political party system a soul-destroying enterprise," said Simpson. "Because you were always asked to concede to what the party needed to obtain power. And you really had to swallow hard a lot."
Sitting as an independent has been freeing, according to Simpson, who calls the idea that independents get lost in the legislature a myth.
He estimates that not only does he get more question period time than a third of the Opposition caucus, but that he is also more productive for his constituents.
"I have the freedom to speak out on any issue and on a range of issues," he said. "I can actually influence the conversation that's going on through the media and I'm able to raise issues that the political parties aren't touching."
Having never been elected as an Independent, the temptation for riding residents to vote for a candidate with a party behind them is one Simpson understands.
Standing against NDP and Liberal candidates Duncan Barnett and Coralee Oakes, respectively, Simpson said he empathizes with their position.
"They'll be pitching to voters in Cariboo North that they will go to Victoria to be their voice. I know, because I did that in 2005 and 2009 - I made that same pitch... You cannot serve two masters. And the master that both Coralee and Duncan are forced to serve will be the political party," said Simpson. "So if they're running on 'we will absolutely put you first,' then they are running as potential future independents."
