Waddell was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and as a child immigrated to Canada. He graduated from the University of Toronto with bachelor of arts in history and an LLB, a teaching diploma from the Ontario College of Education, and a master's in international law from the London School of Economics. He worked as crown counsel for the City of Vancouver and then as defence counsel as a criminal lawyer. Later, as Legal Director at Community Legal Assistance Society, he was counsel on the first successful consumer class action in Canada. He went on to be counsel to Justice Tom Berger's landmark Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry. He was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1979 general election, representing the riding of Vancouver Kingsway between 1979 and 1988 and the riding of Port Moody—Coquitlam between 1988 and 1993. He was a candidate to succeed Ed Broadbent as leader of the New Democratic Party in 1989. He lost his seat in the 1993 federal election. While in federal politics, he was the NDP Energy Critic at the time of the National Energy Program. Waddell also drafted Section 92A, and Section 35 the native rights amendment to the repatriated Canadian Constitution in 1981. This gave aboriginal Canadians constitutional legal rights. In 1996 Waddell moved to provincial politics where he was elected to Legislative Assembly to represent the riding of Vancouver-Fraserview. He served in several positions in the British Columbia NDP governments of the 1990s, including Minister of Small Business, Tourism and Culture from February 1998 to November 2000 under Glen Clark, and Minister of Environment, Lands and Parks under Ujjal Dosanjh from November 2000 to April 2001. As minister, Waddell was responsible for the first Olympic bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, beating out well financed Calgary and political favorite Quebec City. He brought in a film tax credit, which created a billion dollar film industry in BC. In the 2004 federal election, Waddell ran for reelection to Parliament in the reconstituted district of Vancouver Kingsway, losing to David Emerson. At this time, Waddell came out as bisexual. Waddell is also an author. In 2002, he released the political mystery A Thirst to Die For, and published his political memoir Take the Torch in 2018. Currently Waddell is a documentary film producer and a consultant in environmental and aboriginal affairs. In December 2013 he was appointed the honorary title of Queen's Counsel for his exceptional merit to law and contribution. His film The Drop: Why Young People Don't Vote won the Best Producer Award in the Beverly Hills Film Festival in 2016.
