Francis "Frank" Corbett (born 1954) is a former Deputy Premier of Nova Scotia. He represented the riding of

Cape Breton Centre Cape Breton Centre-Whitney Pier, formerly Cape Breton Centre is a provincial electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of ...

in the

Nova Scotia House of Assembly The Nova Scotia House of Assembly (french: Assemblée législative de la Nouvelle-Écosse; gd, Taigh Seanaidh Alba Nuadh), or Legislative Assembly, is the deliberative assembly of the General Assembly of Nova Scotia of the province of Nova Scotia ...

from 1998 to 2015. He was a member 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 ...

Early life and career

Corbett was born and raised in New Waterford and currently resides in

Lingan Lingan (2021 population: 229) is a Canadian suburban community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Lingan is located on the shore of the Cabot Strait, northeast from Sydney, east of New Waterford and northwest of Glace Bay. The ...

. Corbett worked as a television cameraman for CJCB-TV, the CTV affiliate in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and volunteered with the provincial NDP as well as the

labour movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

for over 25 years, primarily with the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union. He served as official agent for

Buddy MacEachern James "Buddy" MacEachern (June 29, 1940 – June 15, 2018) was a Canadian politician from Nova Scotia. He represented the electoral district of Cape Breton Centre in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1974 to 1981. He was a member of the Nova ...

's successful elections in the

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

and 1978 provincial elections.

Political career

Corbett ran for the NDP nomination in the riding of Cape Breton Centre and was first elected in the 1998 provincial election. Corbett 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 ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

and 2013 provincial elections. Following the 2009 election, Corbett 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 ...

as Deputy Premier, Minister of the Public Service Commission, and Minister of Communications Nova Scotia. In a March 2013 cabinet shuffle, Corbett was appointed Minister of Labour and Advanced Education, and Minister of Immigration. Along with his cabinet duties, Corbett also served as the Government House Leader. On November 10, 2009, it was revealed that Corbett had the highest meal expense bills on file amongst cabinet members in the new NDP government. A check of ministers' records showed that Corbett expensed $441.48 for six people at

the Keg The Keg is a Canadian-owned chain of steakhouse restaurants and bars located in Canada and the United States. The original "The Keg and Cleaver" restaurant was founded by George Tidball, in 1971, at a location in North Vancouver, British Colu ...

restaurant in downtown Halifax on June 19, the night he and his 11 cabinet colleagues were sworn in. In July Corbett expensed $332.90 at CUT Steakhouse in Halifax for a dinner meeting for three people. Two nights later he expensed $250.28 at Ryan Duffy's in Halifax for three people. These revelations came after a statement released in September 2009 in which Corbett stated that because of the province's projected $590-million deficit, MLAs and staff had to be prepared to "lead by example." When news of Corbett's meal expenses was made public, he was quoted as saying "I screwed up and it won't happen again". On April 2, 2015, Corbett announced his resignation as MLA.

Personal life

He is married to Joan and they have two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corbett, Frank 1954 births Canadian people of Irish descent Living people Nova Scotia New Democratic Party MLAs People from New Waterford, Nova Scotia Members of the Executive Council of Nova Scotia Deputy premiers of Nova Scotia 21st-century Canadian politicians