Kenneth Gardner Hughes (born 11 February 1954) 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. He served as a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 1993. Later he was chair of

Alberta Health Services Alberta Health Services (AHS) which is headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta is the single health authority for the Canadian province of Alberta and the "largest integrated provincial health care system" in Canada. AHS delivers medical care on beh ...

from 2008 to 2011, before being elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. The Legislative Assembly currently has 87 members, elected first past the post from sin ...

in 2012. He served in the provincial cabinet first as Energy minister, then as Municipal Affairs minister until resigning on 7 April 2014 to enter the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta leadership election. Hughes withdrew his candidacy on 12 May 2014 in order to endorse the eventual winner,

Jim Prentice Peter Eric James Prentice (July 20, 1956 – October 13, 2016) was a Canadian politician who served as the 16th premier of Alberta from 2014 to 2015. In the 2004 federal election he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada as a candidat ...

and resigned from the legislature on 29 September 2014.

Early life

Hughes holds an undergraduate degree in agriculture from the University of Alberta. He also has a master's in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (1981-1983) with a focus on public and corporate finance.

Federal career

Hughes represented the Alberta riding of

Macleod MacLeod, McLeod and Macleod ( ) which cited: are surnames in the English language. Generally, the names are considered to be Anglicised forms of the Scottish Gaelic ', meaning "son of '". One of the earliest occurrences of the surname is of Gi ...

which he won in the 1988 federal election. Hughes served one term in the

34th Canadian Parliament The 34th Canadian Parliament was in session from December 12, 1988, until September 8, 1993. The membership was set by the 1988 federal election on November 21, 1988, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it wa ...

after which he was defeated by Grant Hill of the Reform party in the 1993 election.

Health care career

Following his departure from federal politics, Hughes was appointed as board chairman for the Headwaters Health Authority, a role he filled from 1994 to 1995. He was appointed as the founding chairman of Alberta Health Services on 15 May 2008 and served in this role until 2011.

Provincial politics

Hughes left

and ran for the Progressive Conservative nomination in Calgary-West that was held after incumbent Ron Liepert announced his retirement. He was defeated by former MLA

Shiraz Shariff Shiraz Shariff (born March 1, 1954) is a politician from Alberta, Canada. He is a former Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, representing the riding of Calgary-McCall from 1995 to 2008 as a Progressive Conservative. He was born in T ...

. Controversy would ensue as the nomination results were overturned by the party due to complaints and uncited irregularities. A second nomination meeting was held, which Hughes won. Hughes won the Calgary-West seat during the 23 April 2012 election. Hughes was appointed to Cabinet by Premier Redford to the post of Minister of Energy. Following the Cabinet shuffle in November 2013, Hughes was asked to serve as the Minister of Municipal Affairs, resigning in April 2014 to run for party leader. While he was expected to be a frontrunner, he dropped out prior to the opening of nominations due to lack of support and endorsed

. He resigned from the Legislature on 29 September 2014.

References

External links

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Ken Hughes - Legislative Assembly Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Ken 1954 births Living people Harvard Kennedy School alumni Members of the Executive Council of Alberta Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta People from High River Politicians from Calgary Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs 21st-century Canadian politicians University of Alberta alumni