Frank Richard Branch (May 7, 1944 – October 22, 2018) was 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 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 ...

. Branch was born on May 7, 1944, in

Bathurst, New Brunswick Bathurst ( 2021 population; UA 12,157 ) is the largest City in Northern New Brunswick, it overlooks the Nepisiguit Bay, part of Chaleur Bay and is at the estuary of the Nepisiguit River. As part of the New Brunswick local governance reform , e ...

. A

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 ...

, he was first elected to the New Brunswick Legislature to the

multi-member An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections ma ...

riding for Gloucester County in the 1970 provincial election He was re-elected to the legislature for the single member riding of

Nepisiguit-Chaleur Nepisiguit was a provinces and territories of Canada, provincial electoral district (Canada), electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, Canada. It was known as Nepisiguit-Chaleur from 1974 to 1995. Members of the Legisl ...

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 ...

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge 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 ...

and

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 Phil ...

. He served as

speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

from 1987 to 1991 but was neither elected speaker nor named to the

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

following the 1991 elections and thus did not run for re-election in

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 ...

. While retired from politics, he chaired a regional forestry marketing board for eight years before he sought re-election in the new, though largely unchanged, riding of Nepisiguit in

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 ...

, where he defeated incumbent Progressive Conservative

Joel Bernard Joel Bernard (born December 8, 1963) is a Canadian conservative politician. Political career Provincial He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, representing Nepisiguit, in the general election of 1999 and became deputy sp ...

by a margin of nearly 2-to-1. In October 2005, the North Shore Forest Products

marketing board A marketing board is an organization created by many producers to try to market their product and increase consumption and thus prices. It can also be defined as an organization set up by a government to regulate the buying and selling of a certain ...

, of which Branch is

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

, was taken under investigation for unspecified reasons. On January 13, 2006, Branch left the Liberal

caucus A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political cultures. The term originated in the United States, where it can refer to a meeting ...

to sit as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

pending the outcome of the investigation and on March 23, 2006, the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

reported that he had been fired. He served as chair of the legislature's Public Accounts Committee from the 2003 election until he left the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent. He did not seek re-election 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 ...

. He died of cancer in Bathurst, New Brunswick on October 22, 2018, at the age of 74.

References

External links

MLA Bios, Government of New Brunswick
(pdf) {{DEFAULTSORT:Branch, Frank 1944 births 2018 deaths Deaths from cancer in New Brunswick New Brunswick Liberal Association MLAs Independent New Brunswick MLAs Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick People from Bathurst, New Brunswick 21st-century Canadian politicians