Paul Chalifoux is a politician and the former
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
of
St. Albert, Alberta. He served two terms as mayor, first one having taken place from 1998 to 2001 and the second from 2004 to 2007.
Career
Chalifoux's first attempt at winning elected office was in the
1968 federal election, when he ran for the
Liberal Party of Canada in the riding of
Pembina. He finished a distant second to
Progressive Conservative Jack Bigg.
Before serving as mayor, Chalifoux was a
city alderman
An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...
and the assistant principal of
St. Albert Catholic High School
St. Albert Catholic High School (SACHS) is a high school in St. Albert, Alberta, St. Albert, Alberta, Canada and is part of Greater St. Albert Catholic Regional Division No. 29. The school colours are yellow and blue.http://www.stalbertgazette.com/ ...
.
[http://www.stalbertgazette.com/news/2004/1020/top1.htm] In 1998, he defeated three-term incumbent
Anita Ratchinsky
Anita or ANITA may refer to:
Arts
* ''Anita'' (1967 film), an Indian film
* ''Anita'' (2009 film), an Argentine film
* ''Anita'' (2021 film), a Hong Kong film
*'' Anita: Swedish Nymphet'', a 1973 erotic film
People
*Anita (given name), people w ...
in an election whose major issue was the alignment of the proposed
West Regional Road. Ratchinsky favoured a road that would bypass the developed portion of the city to the west by crossing the
Sturgeon River close to the mouth of
Big Lake, while Chalifoux supported an alignment that would cross the river further upstream.
During Chalifoux's time as mayor, the road remained St. Albert's most contentious political issue. City Council approved Chalifoux's preferred alignment, by this time named
Ray Gibbon Drive. In the 2001 election, Chalifoux was defeated by former mayor
Dr. Richard Plain, who favoured the same alignment as Ratchinsky and proposed a plebiscite on the subject.
Chalifoux challenged Plain again in 2004, campaigning this time on issues other than the road, saying that "it
astime to move on". He won narrowly.
On May 22, 2007, Chalifoux announced that he would not seek re-election (and, in so doing, provoke a third consecutive electoral battle against Plain) and would instead seek the nomination for the
Progressive Conservatives in the next provincial election. Some perceived this as ironic given his past candidacy for the federal Liberals and given that he had inadvertently implicated the City of St. Albert in a minor scandal when he attended a fundraiser for the
Alberta Liberal Party
The Alberta Liberal Party (french: Parti libéral de l'Alberta) is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1905, it is the oldest active political party in Alberta and was the dominant political party until the 1921 election ...
at the city's expense, which violated provincial law. Chalifoux acknowledges that he has been a member of the Liberal Party at both the provincial and federal levels at various points in his life, but claims that it has been more than a decade since his last provincial membership expired. He was defeated on the first ballot by former aldermanic colleague
Ken Allred
George Kenneth (Ken) Allred (born December 30, 1940 in Pincher Creek, Alberta) is a politician in Alberta, Canada, who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, in which he sat as a member of the Progressive Conservative caucus. He i ...
.
Chalifoux is a member of the
Rotary Club.
City of St. Albert
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalifoux, Paul
Living people
Mayors of St. Albert, Alberta
Franco-Albertan people
Canadian educators
Candidates in the 1968 Canadian federal election
Year of birth missing (living people)
Liberal Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons
20th-century Canadian politicians
21st-century Canadian politicians