Parties & Leaders

Shawn Graham

MLA Kent     [ The Liberal Party of New Brunswick ]

Liberal Leader Shawn Graham appears determined to take his party to power in 2006.

The 38-year-old surprised even himself when he took the party from 10 seats to win 26 in the 2003 general election, nearly toppling the second-term Progressive Conservatives under Bernard Lord.

Three years and two successful byelections later, Graham has much more political experience under his belt and wants to use that to get his party into government.

Graham has come out in support of public auto insurance, has promised to phase in proposed power rate hikes and supports the federal day-care deal that injects money into licensed facilities instead of payments to individual families.

Rather than take the spotlight, Graham allows his caucus members to speak on most issues, intent on building a team of individuals that can win votes across the province.

Graham's detractors, however, deride this approach, wondering about his lack of visibility on key issues.

Graham, the youngest of the leaders in this campaign, is no stranger to politics. He is the second generation in his family to represent the riding of Kent for the Liberals. His father, Alan Graham, was only 25 when first elected in 1967. He held the riding for 31 years until his retirement. The torch was passed to his son in a 1998 byelection.

Graham grew up in the small Kent County town of Rexton. He attended the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University, earning degrees in physical education and education.

Liberal Party
Term	Leader
1958-1971	Louis Robichaud
1971-1978	Robert Higgins
1978-1982	Joe Daigle
1982-1983	Doug Young
1985-1997	Frank McKenna
1997-1998	Ray Frenette
1998-2001	Camille Theriault
2001-2002	Bernard Richard
2002-	Shawn Graham
Source: Nodice.ca - New Brunswick Election 2006

He worked briefly as a teacher before moving into the political circle of his father, who was then minister of Natural Resources and Energy under premier Frank McKenna.

Graham spent five years as his father's executive assistant. He then entered the civil service as manager for industrial development with the provincial Department of Natural Resources and resigned when he decided to run for office.

In 1999, the Liberal government of the time - led by then premier Camille Thériault - called an election and lost it to the Tories, winning only 10 seats.

Shawn Graham seems to have managed to mostly erase that defeat from voters' memories and has built a team of legislators that have gone after the government on key issues such as health care, education and public assets such as energy and forestry.

Graham has also worked hard to bring the party to the political left of his predecessors, setting himself apart from previous liberal leaders and the Progressive Conservative government. Under his leadership, the Liberal caucus has urged the government to hire a youth advocate, to hold mandatory inquests into deaths related to spousal violence and to increase payments to families on welfare.

The Liberal leader is now hoping his party's advocacy on those issues will translate into support and a change of government when all the votes are counted in this election.

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