Craig Thomas Coolahan (born November 16, 1970) is a Canadian politician who was elected in the

2015 Alberta general election The 2015 Alberta general election was held on May 5, 2015, following a request of Premier Jim Prentice to the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Donald Ethell to dissolve the Legislative Assembly on April 7, 2015. This election elected members to th ...

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 ...

representing the

electoral district An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

Calgary-Klein Calgary-Klein is a provincial electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The district was created in the 2010 boundary redistribution and is mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the ...

. Coolahan was born in Toronto to parents Thomas and Suzanne and grew up in the suburb of Scarborough. He has one brother, Christopher, and they both attended Hunter's Glen Public School, Charles Gordon Junior High, and David and Mary Thomson High School. After high school he worked at an insurance company in Toronto for a few years and returned to school in 1993. He attended Okanagan University College (now UBC Okanagan) and achieved an Bachelor of Arts degree in English from UBC in conjunction with OUC. In 2001 he completed a Bachelor of Journalism Degree from University College of the Cariboo in Kamloops (now Thompson Rivers University). Coolahan spent several years as a writer and editor in many capacities, including 10 years as a technical writer. He also wrote for newspapers, magazines and co-wrote two vocational how-to books. In 2012, Coolahan left writing and editing and became a Business Agent for the United Utilities Workers' Association. After moving to Calgary in 2003, he became politically active on issues such as health care, education and housing. He ran for the Alberta NDP in the 2012 provincial general election in the riding of Calgary-Elbow, losing to the would-be Premier Alison Redford. He ran again in 2015, winning the seat for Calgary-Klein, when the provincial NDP swept to a majority. Coolahan married Sarah Somasundaram in 2010 and they have two children: Mehna Grace (b.2011) and Kieran Shanta Thomas (b.2014). They live in Calgary in the neighbourhood of Capitol Hill. As a backbench MLA, Coolahan introduced several bills. In November 2016 he introduced Bill 208 to "introduce mandatory workplace harassment policies for every industry," and while the bill died after its first reading it informed the NDP government's "An Act to Protect The Health and Well-Being of Working Albertans" which became law in June 2018. In 2018, Coolahan introduced Bill 206: Preventing the Promotion of Hate Amendment Act to "give the registrar of Alberta Societies within Service Alberta power to look at whether a group has a lawful purpose" when it registers to become a legally recognized organization with certain rights in Alberta. It also died after its first reading.

Electoral record

References

1970s births Alberta New Democratic Party MLAs Living people Politicians from Calgary Politicians from Toronto 21st-century Canadian politicians {{Alberta-politician-stub