Linda Duncan

During the subsequent 40th Canadian Parliament, Layton named Duncan to the NDP front bench as critic for the environment.

In the Parliament's aborted first session, she strongly opposed the government's proposed fiscal update, especially the proposed changes to pay equity claims, four-year wage cap, and suspension of the right to strike for federal employees.

She supported the proposed coalition government, in which arrangement the NDP and Bloc Québécois would have supported the Liberals, whose leader Stéphane Dion would have become Prime Minister.

Duncan condemned Prime Minister Stephen Harper for labelling the coalition government as "treasonous" and "criminal".

Linda Francis Duncan (born June 25, 1949) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Edmonton Strathcona from 2008 until 2019.

Linda Duncan was born in Edmonton on June 25, 1949.

Her father, Darcy Duncan, a second-generation lawyer, supported the family which included a brother, a younger sister and an older sister, along with their mother.

She grew up in the south side of Edmonton.

She attended the University of Alberta, graduating from its law school.

With an interest in environmental law, she did not take the opportunity to join a law firm; instead she founded the Environmental Law Centre in 1982 to assist Albertans concerned with environmental and natural resources law.

Before politics, Duncan founded and ran the Environmental Law Center and practised as an environmental lawyer, working in Edmonton until 1987 when she moved to Ottawa to work for Environment Canada.

She then taught environmental law at Dalhousie Law School (now the Schulich School of Law) and advised the Government of Indonesia on environmental assessment and enforcement.

She also spent time in Whitehorse working as an assistant deputy in the Yukon government, later consulting with Kluane First Nation and later in Montreal as Head Law and Enforcement for the NAFTA's Commission for Environmental Cooperation.

Duncan also served on the Sierra Legal Defence Fund (now Ecojustice Canada) Board of Directors.

In 1987, Thomas McMillan, the federal Minister of Environment, recruited Duncan to establish a new enforcement unit at Environment Canada.

After a year in Ottawa, she moved to Whitehorse, where she worked as the assistant deputy Minister for Renewable Resources in the Yukon government.

She moved to Montreal after she accepted a position helping lead the enforcement department of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Through projects by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, she helped establish environmental law enforcement systems in Jamaica, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.

With a 463-vote margin, Duncan became the only non-Conservative MP in Alberta, and the first NDP member from the province since Ross Harvey was elected at Edmonton East in 1988.

During this time, in the 1990s, she earned a Master of Laws from Dalhousie Law School and taught several courses.

Nevertheless, incumbent Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer, who had served since 1997, won his fourth mandate to represent the riding, with Duncan coming almost 5,000 votes behind him in second place.

Following the death of her father and two sisters she moved back to Edmonton in 1999.

On the local level, in addition to her work at the Environmental Law Centre in Edmonton, she worked on projects with the Edmonton Social Planning Council, Alberta's Clean Air Strategic Alliance, and the Canadian Council on Human Resources for the Environment Industry.

She served on the Board of Directors of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund from 2001 to 2007.

Her family has had a cottage at Wabamun Lake since her youth and she has participated on the Lake Wabamun Enhancement and Protection Association.

Acting as their vice-president during the August 2005 CN Rail oil spill, she was interviewed in the media on behalf of the land owners and lake users.

With the association and the Sierra Legal Defence Fund she helped make a submission to the United Nations Environment Programme noting Canada was not enforcing the legally-binding Heavy Metals Protocol, making specific reference to high levels of mercury being released from coal-fired power plants.

For the 39th Canadian federal election, in January 2006, Duncan ran as the New Democratic Party candidate for the riding of Edmonton—Strathcona.

The contest was expected to be close, so in the final days of the campaign the party shifted resources there and the party leader, Jack Layton, visited the riding, the second time he did so during the campaign.

On January 19, 2007, Duncan accepted the NDP nomination in Edmonton—Strathcona, by acclamation, to seek election to Parliament again in the 40th Canadian federal election.

A member of the New Democratic Party (NDP), Duncan was the only non-Conservative MP from Alberta from 2008 to 2015.

The election campaign began in September 2008.

To make environmental protection an election issue, Duncan and Jack Layton flew over the oil sands area noting environmental impact.

Duncan made support for public health care, enforcement of environmental laws, and driving the economy with 'green jobs' priorities in her campaign.

She drew upon support from a large volunteer network built since the last election and strategic voting from Liberal supporters.

With the polls showing a close race, Jaffer launched an attack ad against Duncan.

On election night, October 14, the results showed Jaffer as the leader, by 1,000 votes with over half the polls reporting.

Jaffer delivered his victory speech around 10 p.m. and several people had projected Jaffer had been reelected.

However, late polls, which included residences around the University of Alberta, put Duncan ahead.

Following a few days of silence and after his fiancée, fellow Conservative Member of Parliament Helena Guergis, flew to Edmonton and quietly married him, Jaffer conceded defeat to Duncan.