Halvar de la Cluyse Jonson (August 14, 1941 – December 2, 2016) was a teacher and high school principal. He was also a long serving provincial 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. He served as a member of 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 ...

and cabinet minister in the provincial government from 1982 until 2004.

Early life

Jonson was born in

Athabasca Athabasca (also Athabaska) is an anglicized version of the Cree name for Lake Athabasca in Canada, āthap-āsk-ā-w (pronounced ), meaning "grass or reeds here and there". Most places named Athabasca are found in Alberta, Canada. Athabasca may a ...

, Canada on August 14, 1941. He served as president of the

Alberta Teachers' Association The Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) is the professional association for the teachers of Alberta, Canada. It represents all teachers and teacher administrators in all schools in Alberta's public, separate and francophone school divisions. It al ...

from 1976 until 1977.

Political career

Jonson was first elected to the Alberta Legislature in the

1982 Alberta general election The 1982 Alberta general election was held on November 2, 1982, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Less than four years had passed since the Progressive Conservatives won their landslide victory in 1979. Premier Peter Lou ...

. He defeated Tom Butterfield from the

Western Canada Concept The Western Canada Concept was a Western Canada, Western Canadian federal political party founded in 1980 to promote the separation of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, and the Yukon and Northwest Territories ...

and three other candidates to win his first term in office. His win held the Ponoka electoral district for the Progressive Conservatives. Due to redistribution of electoral district boundaries in 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 ...

Ponoka was abolished and re-created as

Ponoka-Rimbey Ponoka-Rimbey was a provincial electoral district in Alberta mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting from 1986 to 2004. Ponoka-Rimby is named for the Town of Pon ...

. Jonson ran for his second term in the new electoral district and won easily defeating three other candidates. He stood for a third term in office 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 ...

fending off a strong challenge from Doug Hart of the

New Democrats New Democrats, also known as centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats, or moderate Democrats, are a centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party in the United States. As the Third Way faction of the party, they are seen as culturall ...

and one other candidate. Jonson would see his popular vote grow in his bid for a fourth term for office 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 was easily reelected defeating four other candidates. He would be returned for a fifth consecutive term. The race for the

1997 Alberta general election The 1997 Alberta general election was held on March 11, 1997, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Ralph Klein's Conservatives were re-elected, with increased number of seats in the Legislature. Liberal Official Opposition los ...

would see support build for second place Randy Jones of

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

. Jonson would see his popular support marginally drop but still win the electoral district by a wide margin. In the

2001 Alberta general election The 2001 Alberta general election was held on March 12, 2001 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The incumbent Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, led by Ralph Klein, won a strong majority for its tenth consecutive term i ...

, Jonson would set a personal record for the largest plurality of his career. He would be returned to the Legislature in a landslide for his sixth and final term. Jonson retired at dissolution of the Legislature in 2004. His electoral district of Ponoka-Rimbey was abolished due to redistribution.

Late life and legacy

In honour of Jonson's public service the provincial government renamed the brain injury ward of the Alberta Hospital Ponoka, the Halvar Jonson Centre for Brain Injury in Ponoka,

In recognition of Jonson's work in championing legislation that led to the establishment of charter schools in Alberta, the Association of Alberta Public Charter Schools established the Halvar Jonson Award in 2012. The award is presented annually to those who have given of their time, energy, influence and expertise to enhance the success of charter schools in Alberta. Jonson died on December 2, 2016 at the age of 75.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonson, Halvar 1941 births 2016 deaths Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs People from Athabasca, Alberta People from Ponoka County Members of the Executive Council of Alberta 21st-century Canadian politicians