Mary O'Neill ( Paterson; November 7, 1941) is a politician and former member of 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 singl ...

. O'Neill graduated from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

with a Bachelor of Arts, and subsequently received her teaching certification from the

Ontario College of Education The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) is Canada's only all-graduate institute of teaching, learning and research, located in Toronto, Ontario. It is located directly above the St. George subway sta ...

. She taught in both public and private schools. After retiring from teaching, she worked as a realtor and served as a school trustee with the

Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools or Greater St. Albert Roman Catholic Separate School District No. 734 is a separate school board serving St. Albert, Morinville, and Legal, Alberta, Canada. History Quick facts * Greater St. Albert Catho ...

. She was married to John Stafford "Jack" O'Neill, who was chief commissioner of the Alberta Human Rights Commission. They had two children. In the 1997 provincial election, O'Neill was the Progressive Conservative candidate in the riding of St. Albert, where she faced

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

Len Bracko Leonard Clarence Bracko (December 2, 1943 – August 19, 2017) was a Canadian politician. He was a city councillor for St. Albert City Council and a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. A high school social studies teacher by prof ...

. In the closest race of the election, O'Neill defeated Bracko by 16 votes. In a rematch during the 2001 election, O'Neill increased her lead over Bracko to more than two thousand votes in her successful bid for re-election. In office, O'Neill was best known for sponsoring the School Trustee Statutes Amendment Act, 2002, which proposed to prohibit teachers from serving as school trustees anywhere in the province (at the time, teachers were only prohibited from serving as trustees in the district in which they taught). The Act was passed by the legislature, but was struck down as contravening the

Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part o ...

by the

Alberta Court of Queen's Bench The Court of King's Bench of Alberta (abbreviated in citations as ABKB or Alta. K.B.) is the superior court of the Canadian province of Alberta. Until 2022, it was named Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta. The Court of Queen's Bench in Calgary wa ...

two years later. O'Neill also served as a member of one of the

Ralph Klein Ralph Philip Klein (November 1, 1942 – March 29, 2013) was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 12th premier of Alberta and leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta from 1992 until his retirement in 20 ...

government's "truth squads", formed to defend the government's highly controversial Health Care Protection Act (Bill 11). She chaired the 2000 Fees and Charges Review Committee, which made recommendations on a wide variety of government-assessed fees. In the 2004 provincial election, O'Neill was defeated by Liberal

Jack Flaherty Jack Rafe Flaherty (born October 15, 1995) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). Selected by the Cardinals in the first round of the 2014 MLB draft, he made his MLB debut in 2017 ...

. Since her defeat, she has served on the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

Senate, on the

Northern Alberta Institute of Technology The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) is a applied sciences institute in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. NAIT provides careers programs in applied research, technical training, applied education, and learning designed to meet the deman ...

Board of Governors, and as the Executive Director of the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation. She has remained politically active, organizing the first debate of the 2006 Progressive Conservative leadership election and endorsing

Brent Rathgeber Brent M. Rathgeber (born July 24, 1964) is a lawyer, author and politician from Alberta, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 2001 to 2004 and was elected to the House of Commons of Canad ...

in his bid to secure the

Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Con ...

nomination in

Edmonton—St. Albert Edmonton—St. Albert was a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to 2015. Geography The riding included the city of St. Albert, Alberta, St. A ...

. In May 2007, O'Neill quelled speculation that she would run in the next provincial election, stating that she wasn't interested.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oneill, Mary 1941 births 21st-century Canadian politicians 21st-century Canadian women politicians Canadian schoolteachers Living people Politicians from Toronto Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs University of Toronto alumni Women MLAs in Alberta Alberta school board trustees