R. Wallis "Wally" Stiles (born October 18, 1950 in Sussex, New Brunswick,

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 ...

) is a

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

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 ...

. He represented the electoral district of Petitcodiac in the

Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...

from 1999–2010. On September 17, 2005, he married fellow MLA Joan MacAlpine making them the first husband and wife to serve together in the New Brunswick legislature.

Early life

A 1973 graduate of the

University of New Brunswick The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universities in North Ameri ...

with a

Bachelor of Business Administration Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanced ...

degree, he worked for various companies as a

controller Controller may refer to: Occupations * Controller or financial controller, or in government accounting comptroller, a senior accounting position * Controller, someone who performs agent handling in espionage * Air traffic controller, a person ...

and also managed his own private woodlot where he produced maple sugar.

Local politics

He was involved with his local

riding association An electoral district association (french: association de circonscription enregistrée), commonly known as a riding association (french: association de comté) or constituency association, is the basic unit of a political party at the level of the ...

for some years and was elected to Petitcodiac

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

. In 1998, he received the most votes of any of the candidates of councillor which entitled him to the position of deputy mayor.

Provincial political career

He was elected to the legislature in the 1999 provincial election and served as chairman of the select committee on private passenger

automobile insurance Vehicle insurance (also known as car insurance, motor insurance, or auto insurance) is insurance for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Its primary use is to provide financial protection against physical damage or bodily injur ...

in 2002-2003. This committee was charged with investigating the surging insurance rates in the province and making recommendations to curb and reduce them; something that would become a major issue in the 2003 election. Stiles was re-elected in 2003 and would serve as vice-chairman of the select committee to study

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

auto insurance which was chaired by

New Brunswick New Democratic Party The New Brunswick New Democratic Party (french: link=no, Nouveau Parti démocratique du Nouveau-Brunswick) is a social-democratic provincial political party in New Brunswick, Canada linked with the federal New Democratic Party (NDP). History ...

leader

Elizabeth Weir Elizabeth Jane Weir (born February 20, 1948) is a Canadian lawyer and politician in New Brunswick. She was elected leader of the New Democratic Party of New Brunswick in June 1988 and became an opposition voice to the Liberal government, whic ...

. In late February 2006 he became the whip and caucus chair for his party. This was following a cabinet shuffle on February 14, 2006 in which incumbent caucus chair

Jody Carr Jody Rochelle Carr (born July 3, 1975) is a Canadian politician. He is a former member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, from 1999 to 2018, and served in the cabinet for part of 2006 as well as 2010-2014. Political career He first ...

was named to cabinet and the crossing of the floor of Michael Malley on February 17, 2006, who had been serving as Progressive Conservative whip. On April 17, 2007, he announced that he would cross the floor to join the Liberal party, along with his wife and fellow MLA Joan MacAlpine. On October 31, 2007, he was named to the Liberal cabinet. In the 2010 general election, Stiles was defeated by Progressive Conservative

Sherry Wilson Sherry Wilson is a Canadian provincial politician, who is a member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick. She was first elected to the legislature in 2010. Early life Wilson grew up on a dairy farm in Intervale, New Brunswick and attende ...

."Floor-crosser Wally Stiles defeated"

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca ...

, September 27, 2010.

References

Sources

Stiles' official bio1998 New Brunswick Municipal Election results
(pdf)
CBC coverage of the 2003 New Brunswick election
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stiles, Wally 1950 births Living people Members of the Executive Council of New Brunswick Members of the United Church of Canada University of New Brunswick alumni New Brunswick Liberal Association MLAs Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick MLAs People from Kings County, New Brunswick New Brunswick municipal councillors 21st-century Canadian politicians