Edwin Gerald Allen (March 8, 1920 – January 10, 2001) was 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 ...

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 ...

. He was born in Canada. He served in the

Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...

from 1978 to

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, ...

and again from

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

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

. His son, Mike Allen, later became a member of the House of Commons of Canada. He was first elected to the then-safe Progressive Conservative seat of

Fredericton North Fredericton North (french: Fredericton-Nord) is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, Canada from 1973 to 2006, and was contested again in the 2014 New Brunswick general election. It was split between ...

in the 1978 election that produced a nearly deadlocked legislature. He sat as a

backbench In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...

supporter of Premier

Richard Hatfield Richard Bennett Hatfield (April 9, 1931 – April 26, 1991) was a New Brunswick politician and the longest serving premier of New Brunswick from 1970 to 1987.Richard Starr, ''Richard Hatfield, The Seventeen Year Saga,'' 1987, Early life T ...

until after the 1982 election, in which the Conservatives won a large majority, when he was named to the cabinet as

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 ...

. He was defeated in the 1987 election which saw the PC Party lose all of its seats. Following his defeat, he became a member of the new

Confederation of Regions Party The Confederation of Regions Party (CoR) was a right-wing politics, right-wing federal list of political parties in Canada, political party in Canada founded in 1984 by Elmer Knutson. It was founded as a successor to the Western Canada Federation ...

, known as CoR, which was formed by many anglophone conservatives. Running under the CoR banner he was re-elected to his old seat in 1991. CoR formed the official opposition and he became

house leader {{Politics of Canada In Canada, each political party with representation in the House of Commons has a House Leader who is a front bench Member of Parliament (MP) and an expert in parliamentary procedure. The same representation is found in the pr ...

. He did not seek re-election in

References

Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick MLAs New Brunswick Confederation of Regions Party MLAs Members of the Executive Council of New Brunswick 1920 births 2001 deaths {{NewBrunswick-MLA-stub