Bonnie Mary Sheila Laing (née Paul; March 30, 1937 – November 11, 2016) was a teacher, politician and health care professional from

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada.

Early life

Bonnie Laing had a career as an educator for 26 years; she left that role when she ran for public office in 1989.

Political career

Laing ran for public office in the

1989 Alberta general election The 1989 Alberta general election was held on March 20, 1989, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Many political observers were surprised by the early election call as less than three years had passed since the previous ele ...

. She won a hotly contested three-way race that saw each candidate in the electoral district of

Calgary-Bow Calgary-Bow is a provincial electoral district in the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The district is one of 87 districts mandated to return a single member (MLA) to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of ...

pick up 30% of the popular vote. Laing finished first, defeating Tim Bardsley and Scott Jeffery of the Liberals and NDP. Laing won her second term in office in the

1993 Alberta general election The 1993 Alberta general election was held on June 15, 1993, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The Conservative government was re-elected, taking 51 seats out of 83 (61 percent of the seats) but only having support of 45 per ...

with a much larger margin, defeating six other candidates and winning almost 47% of the popular vote. She was re-elected to her third and final term in the

1997 Alberta general election The 1997 Alberta general election was held on March 11, 1997, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Ralph Klein's Conservatives were re-elected, with increased number of seats in the Legislature. Liberal Official Opposition los ...

by her biggest margin, defeating four other candidates and winning 54% of the popular vote. During her time in office Laing served on the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission. She also served as the co-chair on the government's Special Task Force on Province-Wide Health Services. Laing also chaired the province's 1997 Health System Funding Review Committee.

Later career and death

After leaving politics, Laing was appointed chair of the Health Utilization and Outcomes Commission. She continued to serve as vice-chair after the commission was renamed the Health Quality Council of Alberta. Laing died on November 11, 2016, at the age of 79 at the Bowcrest Care Centre in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laing, Bonnie 1937 births 2016 deaths Politicians from Calgary Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs Women MLAs in Alberta