Victor Doerksen (born November 25, 1953) is a politician, accountant and former cabinet minister in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Early life

Doerksen was born in Bassano,

on November 25, 1953. He was employed by the

Bank of Montreal The Bank of Montreal (BMO; french: Banque de Montréal, link=no) is a Canadian multinational investment bank and financial services company. The bank was founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1817 as Montreal Bank; while its head office remains in ...

for 12 years. He left his job to run for political office a day after hearing about

John Oldring John Oldring (born September 2, 1952) is a former municipal provincial level politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Red Deer City Council from 1974 to 1986 before becoming a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta f ...

retiring as MLA for

Red Deer South Red Deer-South is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada. The district was created from Red Deer in 1986. Under the Alberta electoral boundary re-distribution of 2004, the constituency borders Red Dee ...

Albertan politician

Doerksen was first elected to the riding of

after it was created from the old

Red Deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...

riding in the

1993 Alberta general election The 1993 Alberta general election was held on June 15, 1993, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The Conservative government was re-elected, taking 51 seats out of 83 (61 percent of the seats) but only having support of 45 per ...

. He held the seat for 4 terms for the Progressive Conservatives and did not seek re-election in the 2008 election. After winning his 3rd term in office in the 2001 election, Doerksen was appointed as the Minister of Innovation and Science and sworn into the portfolio in 2001. Doerksen quit his post as the Minister of Innovation and Science on August 15, 2006, and announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives on August 17. He finished seventh of eight candidates on the first ballot with less than one percent of the vote; after being required to drop out, he declined to endorse any of his opponents.

References

External links

Alberta Cabinet Minister Quits CFCN News August 15, 2006Victor Doerksen's homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doerksen, Victor 1953 births Living people Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs Red Deer, Alberta city councillors Members of the Executive Council of Alberta 21st-century Canadian politicians