Joyce Murray

She was re-elected in the 41st, 42nd, 43rd, and 44th federal elections.

Joyce Murray (born July 11, 1954) is a Canadian politician who has represented the riding of Vancouver Quadra in the House of Commons as a member of the Liberal Party since 2008.

Murray was born in Schweizer-Reneke, South Africa, and immigrated to Canada with her parents in 1961.

Murray and her parents settled in Vancouver, in the West Point Grey neighbourhood.

Murray's mother, Charlotte Coe Murray, was an architect who became the first female assistant professor at the University of British Columbia School of Architecture.

Murray's father, Gordon Murray, a businessman, founded Murray & Associates Surveying.

After graduating from Lord Byng Secondary School, Murray attended Simon Fraser University in the 1970s, studied archaeology and linguistics, and then completed her pre-med requirements.

Murray and a group of friends won one of the first tree-planting contracts in British Columbia in 1970, starting what would become Brinkman and Associates Reforestation.

Starting as a small tree-planting proprietorship in British Columbia, the business began to expand when Murray and Brinkman started working together in 1975.

In 1976, Nick Kendall of Orca Productions documented the planting of millions of trees in the heavy slash debris of that era's logging in a one-hour NFB documentary Do it with Joy.

Released in 1977, it is regarded as a tree-planting classic today.

Murray and Brinkman grew the company across Canada (1978 Alberta; 1983 Ontario, 1987 Saskatchewan 1989 Quebec, 1992 Manitoba, 1993 Yukon) and diversified beyond reforestation into ecosystem restoration, urban restoration, forest management services for First Nation communities, rights of way clearing and fully integrated harvest to reforestation services and sustainability initiatives.

Murray and her husband, Dirk Brinkman, incorporated Brinkman and Associates Reforestation Ltd. in 1979.

In 1979, the CBC made Do it with Joy into a documentary.

For a period beginning in 1979, she was the chair of the board of directors and from this role proposed a global warming strategy for Canada.

In 1989, she pursued an executive master's degree in Business Administration at SFU's Beedie School of Business.

In 1992 in recognition of her academic achievements, she received the Beedie School of Businesses "Dean's Convocation Medal" for the being the school's top MBA graduate of that year.

Her thesis was a policy analysis of one of Canada's options for meeting the challenge of climate change.

In 1994, the company's long-term strategic international division, BARCA, was formed to develop forestry initiatives and plantations in Central America.

From 1996 to 1999, Murray sat on the BC Forest Resources Advisory Board and the GVRD Waste Management Committee.

As a result of her public interventions, the leader of the BC Liberals attempted to persuade her to run for nomination as a BC Liberal candidate, but she challenged him to lead more strongly on sustainability commitments.

When she declared herself a candidate in May 2000, the headline "From the Greens to the Liberals" ran over an article that opens with predictions Murray had made in 1997 about forest renewal, her background and her wish "to create a sustainable community".

In August 2000, Murray won the nomination as the BC Liberal candidate for the riding of the electoral district of New Westminster.

During the election, she developed climate action and forest renewal policy papers for the party leadership.

Murray previously served as a cabinet minister in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, first as Minister of Water, Land, and Air Protection from 2001 to 2004 and then as Minister of Management Services until 2005.

Then in 2001, she switched from business to politics full-time when she became the first BC Liberal to be elected from New Westminster in 49 years.

She was named a cabinet minister by Premier Gordon Campbell in June 2001, serving until 2004 as the first-ever minister of Water, Land and Air Protection, and as Minister of Management Services from 2004 until the 2005 election.

In 2002, Murray hosted a joint meeting of the federal, provincial and territorial energy and environment ministers, to examine policies in the context of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.

From 2003 to 2004, she presided over the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.

In 2007, Brinkman co-founded Earth Partners LP, which is undertaking the largest private soil and ecosystem restoration projects in the United States.

The company operates in six countries and is developing projects in several others.

It employs approximately 600 full-time and 800 seasonal positions.

Murray helped in developing management systems, organizational re-engineering, strategic development, restructuring, training and business planning.

The company grew and planted its billionth tree by 2012.

On April 14, 2013, Murray placed second in the Liberal Party of Canada leadership election.

In December 2015, she was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board.

She announced on July 25, 2023, that she would not seek re-election at the end of her term.

Murray was appointed as President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Digital Government on March 18, 2019.

She was re-appointed as Minister of Digital Government following the 2019 election.

In 2021, she was appointed Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, a position she held until July 2023.