Parties & Leaders

Brian Mason Brian Mason VIDEO PROFILE Brian Mason has direct experience with “pothole politics”: he was an Edmonton Transit bus driver for several years in the 1980s. In 1989, while still employed by the city, he openly questioned provincial rules forbidding municipal employees from running for city hall and challenged the law in court. He lost the legal case, but in October of that year he was elected in Edmonton’s Ward 3. Shortly after his political success, he won a moral victory when the provincial law was amended to allow active city workers to run for office. Mason won three more municipal elections and served on council for 11 years. His interest in politics stretches back to his university days. He studied political science at the University of Alberta, serving as executive director of the Alberta Federation of Students. He was first elected as the MLA for Edmonton-Highlands in a 2000 byelection. He won the seat again in the 2000 general election, and was appointed house leader of the two-person New Democrat caucus, as well as the critic for Human Resources, Finance and Agriculture. On July 13, 2004 Mason became the leader of the New Democratic Party. In the legislature, Mason has become known as a fierce critic of the government's energy and consumer policies.