Brian Clifford Downey (November 5, 1950 – January 12, 2012) was a politician from

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. Born in

Castor, Alberta Castor is a town in Alberta, Canada. It is located at the intersection of Highway 12 and Highway 861, approximately east of the City of Red Deer. It has an elevation . ''Castor'' is French (also Latin) for beaver. The town is known for its duc ...

to Clifford and Doreen Downey, Brian Downey was first 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 singl ...

for the riding of Stettler as a Progressive Conservative member during the

1986 Alberta general election The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

. He served his first term as a backbencher in the Don Getty government. He was re-elected for his second term in the

1989 Alberta general election The 1989 Alberta general election was held on March 20, 1989, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Many political observers were surprised by the early election call as less than three years had passed since the previous ele ...

. However, during that election, Premier

Don Getty Donald Ross Getty (August 30, 1933 – February 26, 2016) was a Canadian politician who served as the 11th premier of Alberta between 1985 and 1992. A member of the Progressive Conservatives, he served as Energy Minister and Federal and Intergo ...

was defeated in his own riding of

Edmonton-Whitemud Edmonton-Whitemud is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada. In 1989, its constituents unseated the Premier of the day, Donald Getty, by voting for Liberal candidate Percy Wickman. The district was rep ...

. Downey resigned as the member for Stettler so that Getty could run in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

. Under long-standing practice in Westminster systems, if the party leader doesn't have a seat of his own the MLA for a safe seat resigns to give the leader a chance to get into the chamber via a by-election. After Downey retired from politics he was appointed as enhancement co-ordinator of Alberta Hail and Crop Insurance Corporation. He was later appointed Chairman of the Alberta Grain Commission.

Personal life

On January 12, 1971, he married Trudy Fuller of Alliance and they returned to Castor to farm. They had two children, Allison and Dustin. Brian Downey died in

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 ...

in 2012, aged 61, after a brief illness.

References

External links

Embarrassment for Getty CBC ArchivesAlberta Hansard March 26, 1991Alberta Hansard April 21, 1993
{{DEFAULTSORT:Downey, Brian 1950 births 2012 deaths Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs