Walter Joseph Paszkowski, , (born April 23, 1934) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

former farmer as well as a municipal and provincial level politician. 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 si ...

from 1989 until 2001.

Early life

Born in Sexsmith, Alberta, Paszkowski spent most of his working life in agriculture. He ran a seed farm and a retail seed outlet in his hometown of Sexsmith,

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 T ...

. He served on the board of directors for various agriculture interest groups. They include chair of the Canola Council of Canada and president the Alberta Canola Growers. He was also a member of the Canadian Seed Growers Association.

Political career

Paszkowski began his political career serving as mayor of Sexsmith. He served in that role for six years before moving to provincial politics. Paszkowski ran for provincial 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 el ...

. He won the electoral district of

Smoky River The Smoky River is a river in western Alberta, Canada. It is a major tributary of the Peace River. The descriptive name refers to the presence of "smouldering beds of coal in the riverbank" noted by the Cree Indians. It drains an area of . Fr ...

defeating three other candidates by a comfortable margin to hold the district for the Progressive Conservatives. His electoral district was abolished in 1993 and he ran for his second term in office in the new electoral district of

Grande Prairie-Smoky Grande Prairie-Smoky was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using first-past-the-post balloting from 1993 to 2019. The riding was created in 1993 when ...

. Paskowski won the new district with an increased plurality over his 1989 results. Paszkowski ran for a third term in office in 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 ...

winning a landslide majority. On December 7, 1998, while serving as Minister of Transportation and Utilities Paskowski created an initiative to promote training for skilled labour in the Alberta highway construction industry. He retired at the end of his third term when the legislature was dissolved in 2001. During his time in office he served as Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Minister of Transportation and Utilities and Minister of Municipal Affairs.

Late life

After leaving provincial politics, the Municipal District of Greenview provided funding along with numerous other partners to help establish the Museum Society for the Paszkowski House. He was later appointed to the board of directors of the Alberta Order of Excellence Council. In the early 2000's he was heavily involved in efforts to build a paleontology museum atop the Pipestone Creek Pachyrhinosaurus bonebed, southwest of Grande Prairie. A later palaeontology museum, the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, was eventually built in Wembley, Alberta.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paszkowski, Walter Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs Living people Mayors of places in Alberta Members of the Alberta Order of Excellence Members of the Executive Council of Alberta 1934 births