William Irvine Estabrooks (born July 26, 1947) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

retired educator and politician from

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. A native of

Sackville, New Brunswick Sackville is a town in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. It is home to Mount Allison University, a primarily undergraduate liberal arts university. Historically based on agriculture, shipbuilding, and manufacturing, the economy is now driven ...

, Estabrooks attended

Mount Allison University Mount Allison University (also Mount A or MtA) is a Canadian primarily undergraduate liberal arts university located in Sackville, New Brunswick, founded in 1839. Like other liberal arts colleges in North America, Mount Allison does not parti ...

from which he graduated in 1969. Estabrooks found employment as a teacher in the communities around

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

, residing in the suburban community of Upper Tantallon. Estabrooks taught at various schools in Halifax including Sir John A. Macdonald High, Sackville High and Brookside Junior High. He has long been involved in local chapters of the

Lions Club The International Association of Lions Clubs, more commonly known as Lions Clubs International, is an international non-political service organization established originally in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , ...

as well as volunteering with local

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

teams. He is also a recipient of the Lions International Presidents' Recognition Award and the Medal of Bravery from the

Governor General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

. In 2015, the Hubley Community Centre was named the ''Estabrooks Community Hall'' in Bill Estabrook's honour for his years of dedication to the community.

Political career

Estabrooks ran for the nomination of the

Nova Scotia New Democratic Party The Nova Scotia New Democratic Party is a social-democratic, progressive provincial party in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is the provincial entity of the federal New Democratic Party (NDP). It was founded as the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (C ...

in the riding of

Timberlea-Prospect Timberlea—Prospect is a provincial electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. Its Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) since 2013 has been Iain Rankin of the Nova Scotia Liberal ...

in 1998. He was elected in the 1998 Nova Scotia election and was subsequently re-elected in the

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

and 2009 provincial elections. Estabrooks was appointed to the

Executive Council of Nova Scotia The Executive Council of Nova Scotia (informally and more commonly, the Cabinet of Nova Scotia) is the cabinet of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Almost always made up of members of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, the Cabinet is sim ...

in June 2009 where he served as Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal and Minister of Energy until his resignation from cabinet in May 2012. On September 10, 2010, Estabrooks announced that he had been diagnosed with

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

in November 2008. He continued to serve in cabinet until his resignation on May 30, 2012. Estabrooks also announced his decision to not seek re-election in the next provincial election due to his health concerns.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Estabrooks, Bill Nova Scotia New Democratic Party MLAs Living people Members of the Executive Council of Nova Scotia People from Sackville, New Brunswick Mount Allison University alumni 1947 births 21st-century Canadian politicians Canadian schoolteachers People with Parkinson's disease