Dale Allison Graham (born October 6, 1951''Canadian Parliamentary Guide, 1997'', Kathryn O'Handley ) is a former

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) 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. It is the only province with both English and ...

, Canada. He served as an MLA from 1993 to 2014, as Speaker of the

Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick A legislature is an deliberative assembly, assembly with the authority to make laws for a Polity, political entity such as a Sovereign state, country or city. They are often contrasted with the Executive (government), executive and Judiciary, ...

from 2010 to 2014, and as a member of the

provincial cabinet Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

from 1999 to 2006.

Early life and career

Born in

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...

, the son of Robert Graham and Letha Delong, Graham attended school in Centreville. He became a small business owner and was involved in local politics at the

school board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

level. He married Shelley McDougall in 1972. In the 1991 provincial election, Graham was defeated by

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

incumbent Fred Harvey, however Harvey's victory was later declared void when Harvey was convicted of violating election spending laws. Graham was successful in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

in 1993 winning the

Carleton North Carleton North may refer to: * Carleton North, New Brunswick, a town in Canada * Carleton North (electoral district), a former electoral district in New Brunswick See also *Carlton North Carlton North is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, V ...

seat. Graham went on to be re-elected in the new

electoral district An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

of Carleton in the

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; 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

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

. Graham's 1993 victory was a key test for his

Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick The Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick is a centre-right, conservative political party in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The party has its origins in the pre-Canadian confederation Conservative Party that opposed the granti ...

. His party had been defeated provincially in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

going from having led the government for 17 years to being shut out of the legislature. Though the party regained 3 seats in the 58 seat legislature in 1991, the upstart

Confederation of Regions Party of New Brunswick The New Brunswick Confederation of Regions Party was a political party in the Province of New Brunswick, Canada. It was the only branch of the Confederation of Regions Party of Canada to win any seats. It held official status in the Legislativ ...

(CoR) had won 8 seats and claimed

official opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''th ...

. Graham's victory was seen as a sign that CoR would not necessarily displace the Progressive Conservatives as the voice of

conservatism Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

Anglophone Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...

New Brunswick. In 1999, Graham's party was returned to government. Graham, who co-chaired the election campaign, was named

deputy premier A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

and

Minister of Supply and Services Minister of Supply and Services was an office in the Cabinet of Canada from 1969 to 1996. On July 12, 1996, office of the Minister of Supply and Services and the office of the Minister of Public Works were abolished and replaced with the office of ...

. On July 21, 2005, Graham added the responsibilities of Minister of Environment & Local Government on an acting basis when his cabinet colleague Brenda Fowlie was forced to resign from the cabinet. He retained the portfolio until November 21, 2005. In a

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 ...

on February 14, 2006, Graham was shuffled to the post of minister responsible for the Office of Human Resources and for

Service New Brunswick Service New Brunswick (in French, Service Nouveau-Brunswick), commonly referred to as SNB, is a crown corporation in the Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national admini ...

. He retained his honorary post of deputy premier. His party failed to win a plurality of seats in the 2006 election so Graham left cabinet and returned to opposition. He was re-elected in 2010 and his party returned to government, and he became dean of the legislature; he was excluded from cabinet but was elected to serve as speaker of the legislature. He did not seek re-election in 2014.

References

MLA Bios, Government of New Brunswick
{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Dale 1951 births Canadian businesspeople Canadian Baptists Deputy premiers of New Brunswick Living people Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick MLAs Members of the Executive Council of New Brunswick People from Woodstock, New Brunswick 21st-century Canadian politicians Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick