Ian Gardiner Waddell (born 1942) is a Canadian politician.
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 Ontario College of Education and a master's in international law from the London School of Economics.
He has worked for the City of Vancouver as an assistant city prosecutor and also practiced as a criminal lawyer and community lawyer.
He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons 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 voted against the Meech Lake accord and as a result was expelled from the NDP shadown cabinet. He was a candidate to succeed Ed Broadbent as leader of the New Democratic Party in 1989. He finished fifth at the leadership convention. He lost his seat in the 1993 federal election.
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.
He attempted to return to the House of Commons as an NDP candidate in both the 2004 federal election and 2006 federal election in the riding of Vancouver Kingsway, but was defeated both times by Liberal candidate David Emerson.
Waddell is also an author. In 2002, he released the political mystery A Thirst to Die For.