Carol Skelton, (born December 12, 1945 in

Biggar, Saskatchewan Biggar is a town in central Saskatchewan, Canada. It is located on Highway 14, west of Saskatoon, the province's most populous city. Biggar has become well known for its unusual town slogan, an Olympic athlete, and a world-record deer. The ...

) 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 ...

politician. She is a member of the

Security Intelligence Review Committee The Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC; french: Comité de surveillance des activités de renseignement de sécurité) was a committee of Privy Councillors that was empowered to serve as an independent oversight and review body for the o ...

which oversees the operation of

Canadian Security Intelligence Service The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS, ; french: Service canadien du renseignement de sécurité, ''SCRS'') is Canada's primary national intelligence agency. It is responsible for collecting, analysing, reporting and disseminating int ...

. She formerly served as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

from 2000 to 2008, and was the Minister of National Revenue from 2006 to 2007. She was first elected in the 2000 federal election by 68 votes over incumbent

Dennis Gruending Dennis Gruending (born May 18, 1948) is a Canadian journalist and politician. He is primarily a writer of non-fiction, but also published a book of poetry and various pieces of short fiction. He is a journalist who has worked for three newspaper ...

of the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

in the riding of

Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar (formerly known as Saskatoon—Rosetown) was a federal electoral district in Saskatchewan, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1997 to 2015. Geography The district consisted of the sou ...

, as a member of the

Canadian Alliance The Canadian Alliance (french: Alliance canadienne), formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (french: Alliance réformiste-conservatrice canadienne), was a centre-right to right-wing federal political party in Canada that existed u ...

. She was deputy leader of the Canadian Alliance for six months in 2003 before that party disbanded itself to merge into the new

Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Con ...

. She was re-elected in the 2004 federal election by over 2,000 votes in a rematch against Gruending. She is the former official opposition critic of Family Issues, Children and Youth, Human Resources Development, the Deputy Prime Minister, Social Economy, Western Economic Diversification, Public Health and Social Development, where she was instrumental in developing the party's child care policies. In

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 ...

, she was re-elected again, defeating NDP candidate

Nettie Wiebe Nettie Wiebe (born January 22, 1949) is a Canadian professor. She grew up near Warman, Saskatchewan. She has a BA and MA in Philosophy from the University of Saskatchewan and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Calgary. Wiebe first bec ...

by 6.3 percentage points. She was appointed to the federal cabinet on February 6, 2006, by the new

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

, making her the first ever female Canadian federal cabinet minister from the province of Saskatchewan. On May 28, 2007, she announced a new Taxpayers' Bill of Rights and the creation of a Taxpayer's Ombudsman at the Canada Revenue Agency. In January 2007, she lost the portfolio of Minister of Western Economic Diversification when it was transferred to

Rona Ambrose Ronalee Ambrose Veitch ( , née Chapchuk; born March 15, 1969) is a Canadian former politician who was interim leader of the Conservative Party and the leader of the Opposition between 2015 and 2017. She was the Conservative Party member of ...

in a minor

cabinet shuffle A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the Head of State changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in parlia ...

. Skelton announced on August 3, 2007 that she would not run in the 2008 election. Her tenure as Revenue minister ended when Prime Minister Harper again shuffled his cabinet on August 14, 2007.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skelton, Carol 1945 births Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Saskatchewan Canadian Alliance MPs Conservative Party of Canada MPs Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada Living people Women members of the House of Commons of Canada People from Biggar, Saskatchewan Women in Saskatchewan politics Members of the 28th Canadian Ministry Women government ministers of Canada 21st-century Canadian women politicians