Shawn Graham

Shawn Michael Graham (born February 22, 1968) is a Canadian politician, who served as the 31st premier of New Brunswick from 2006 to 2010.

Graham spent much of his career before entering elected politics working for the province's civil service and when his father resigned from the legislature in 1998, Shawn Graham was elected to replace him in a by-election called by Premier Camille Theriault as a member of the Liberal Party.

Following the general election of 1999, the Liberals were reduced to 10 seats from 45, and by early 2001 they were down to 7 seats following the resignation of several former cabinet ministers.

This gave the young politician the chance to rise to prominence.

He was elected leader of the New Brunswick Liberal Party in 2002 and became premier after his party captured a majority of seats in the 2006 election.

After being elected, Graham initiated a number of changes to provincial policy especially in the areas of health care, education and energy.

Liberal leader Camille Theriault resigned in March 2001, and a leadership convention was set for May 12, 2002.

Few candidates emerged for this campaign and it appeared that former cabinet minister Paul Duffie would win virtually unopposed.

Graham was urged to run, and eventually entered the race with the support of Greg Byrne, a previous leadership contender, and many of the supporters of Bernard Richard, also a former leadership contender and the interim leader following the resignation of Theriault.

Surprising many pundits, Graham was successful in taking a solid lead during delegate selection meetings in February and March 2002, and, as a result, Duffie dropped out of the race.

This left only fringe candidate Jack MacDougall in the race who Graham defeated by a 3 to 1 margin at the May convention.

As leader, Graham was considered a lightweight by pundits and by the governing Progressive Conservative Party, and few gave him a chance in the 2003 election.

Graham surprised pundits again during the 2003 election, running an energetic campaign and winning 26 of 55 seats, just two short of the Conservatives, and coming within 1% of the Conservatives in the popular vote.

Pundits said Graham and Lord had fought the English language debate to a draw, while they viewed Graham as the winner of the French debate; this was despite the fact that Lord was a francophone and that Graham's command of French was viewed as one of his largest liabilities.

The Liberals controlled the agenda of the campaign, always keeping their three key issues: public automobile insurance, public health care and public power in the forefront of the agenda.

Graham often cited the fact that had 10 votes swung from the Conservatives to the Liberals in the riding of Kennebecasis there would have been a 27–27 tie which may have led to a Liberal minority government supported by the New Democrats whose one member would have held the balance of power.

Graham was quoted on election night saying "until five minutes ago, I thought I was going to be premier".

Throughout the term that began following the 2003 election, Graham has worked hard to portray himself and his caucus as a "government-in-waiting".

Graham's Liberals captured a by-election victory on October 4, 2004, in Shediac-Cap-Pelé.

Graham's upward momentum continued when, in an opinion poll released on December 9, 2004, the Liberals expanded their lead over the Conservatives to 46% to 36%, but also, for the first time since Graham became leader, he was the preferred choice of New Brunswickers for premier beating the incumbent Bernard Lord 34% to 27%.

In the spring session of the legislature, Graham attempted to pass a snap motion of no confidence during his speech on the budget.

There was brief excitement on Liberal benches as less than half of the government caucus was present for Graham's speech, however the speaker ruled that the vote would be held along with the main budget motion at the end of the following week.

Graham was criticised because when the vote was held two of his members were absent.

Graham defended their absence arguing that, because New Democratic Party leader Elizabeth Weir was also absent, it was impossible to defeat the government, and he did not see the need to whip his members.

From the Lord government's introduction of controversial health reforms in the spring of 2004, Graham said he would force an election at his earliest opportunity.

His strategy was to focus heavily on policy, and his party introduced a record number of pieces of legislation for an opposition party.

Graham's victory in a subsequent by-election on November 14, 2005, in Saint John Harbour with candidate Ed Doherty, as well as his continued lead in opinion polls, quieted any criticism of his leadership for a time.

In addition to his legislative agenda, Graham and the Liberals launched a series of regional policy meetings culminating in a policy convention in the fall of 2005.

Graham also convened a meeting of all of the Liberal leaders of the Maritime provinces to discuss common policy objectives, engaged in several tours of the province on particular policy issues and took several trips to Ottawa to meet with federal ministers on various issues.

In 2006, however, following the brief minority government when Michael Malley left the government caucus for 6 weeks, Graham took a very aggressive stance towards forcing an election.

A prolonged dispute over the functioning of legislature was undertaken, crippling most of the business of the House.

Graham and the Liberals were criticized for this and, for the first time in over 2 years, in June 2006 the PCs regained the lead in opinion polls and Lord took a double-digit lead in preference for Premier.

In early 2006, Graham set out on a tour of the northeast United States, Washington, D.C. and the Maritimes to promote New Brunswick as an "energy hub" and his idea of building a second reactor at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station.

On February 17, 2006, Bernard Lord's government was reduced to a minority when Michael Malley crossed the floor to sit as an independent.

Graham said, if Malley would support the Liberals, he would have brought down the government on an April 7, 2006 budget vote forcing an early election.

His party was defeated in the New Brunswick provincial election held September 27, 2010, and Graham resigned as Liberal leader on November 9, 2010.

Graham was born in Rexton, New Brunswick, Canada and raised in a political family, with his father Alan R. Graham being the longest serving member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick.

The family has ancestral homes in the communities of Five Rivers and Main River with roots going back to the early 19th century.

Shawn Graham was born the year after his father's first election as MLA for Kent County, New Brunswick.

Graham graduated from the University of New Brunswick, as an alumnus of both Harrison House and Neill House, after which he completed an education degree at St Thomas University in Fredericton.