Thomas Lukaszuk

Thomas Adam Lukaszuk (born April 5, 1969) is a Polish-born Canadian politician and former Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

His father defected to Canada from communist Poland, and his family later joined him in 1982.

The family lived in Sydney, where Thomas attended school and began to learn English.

The family then moved to Alberta, looking for better employment opportunities.

He was raised in north Edmonton, went to St. Joseph's High School, and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Alberta and became a social studies teacher with the Edmonton Catholic School District.

He started up Injured Workers Advocates Inc. (IWA), a small business which helped injured workers with work-related injury claims.

He cites the reward of helping people, and his growing interest in political issues led him to get involved in policy-making.

He served on the Social Care Facilities Review Committee, which gathers Albertans' feedback on the quality of services being provided, and provides recommendations to the Government on how to proceed in that area.

He also chaired the Citizens' Appeal Panel, which led to government policy changes surrounding social benefits, and he served on the Alberta Lotteries Review Committee.

He conducted a review of Alberta daycares, foster homes, group homes and homeless shelters for the Minister of Children's Services before being elected as an MLA.

He represented the constituency of Edmonton-Castle Downs from 2001 to 2015 as a Progressive Conservative.

In 2001, Edmonton-Castle Downs MLA Pamela Paul's retirement opened the door for Lukaszuk to stand for election.

Garnering 5,971 votes in the 2001 provincial election, he was able to increase the Progressive Conservative vote share to 51 per cent, up from the 40 per cent Ihor Broda polled in losing to Paul in 1997.

Upon his election, he became the first ever Polish-born person to be elected to a Canadian legislature.

In his first term in office, Lukaszuk sponsored Bill 204, a private member's bill known as the Blood Samples Act, which passed third reading on March 31, 2004 and was passed into law on May 11, 2004.

The act granted authority to Good Samaritans, front-line emergency workers, police officers, fire fighters, correctional officers, and health service providers to seek an order from the justice system to take a blood sample from a person who has refused to give their consent.

The act protected individuals who believed they had come into contact with the body fluid of a person who is infected with a virus that causes a prescribed communicable disease.

In his time as an MLA, Lukaszuk has served on a total of 21 legislative committees, chairing six of them.

On the night of the 2004 provincial election, Lukaszuk was declared defeated by the Liberal Party candidate Chris Kibermanis, a former draft pick of the NHL's Winnipeg Jets.

Unofficial results showed Kibermanis winning by a five-vote margin over Lukaszuk.

An automatic judicial recount confirmed Kibermanis's win by three votes rather than five, and Kibermanis was declared the winner by Elections Alberta.

However, Lukaszuk appealed the recount three times, to the Alberta Court of Appeals, disputing a number of rejected ballots.

The third presiding judge gave Lukaszuk a three-vote margin of victory.

The ordeal earned Lukaszuk the moniker "Landslide Lukaszuk," which has been ascribed to him in the local media.

After being elected to his third term in 2008, Premier Ed Stelmach named him parliamentary assistant to Municipal Affairs Minister Ray Danyluk.

Kibermanis again challenged Lukaszuk in the 2008 provincial election, but was defeated by 2,080 votes.

He served in the provincial cabinet from 2010 to 2014, and was the 8th Deputy Premier from 2012 to 2013.

Lukaszuk was born in Gdynia, Poland.

On January 13, 2010, Lukaszuk was appointed as Minister of Employment and Immigration in the government of Ed Stelmach.

He introduced a number of reforms to occupational health and safety programs.

The changes included releasing information about employers’ safety records online, introducing “blitz” inspections, and hiring additional health and safety officers.

On October 12, 2011, he was sworn in as Minister of Education under Alison Redford.

That same day, government provided $107 million in funding to school boards to deal with growth pressures.

Over his term, Lukaszuk would change the provisions for public education in Morinville to make it the same as elsewhere in the province, and reduce the administrative burden for charter schools.

Redford appointed him Deputy Premier on May 8, 2012, and in July named him as Ministerial Liaison to the Canadian Forces.

On February 4, 2013 he was appointed as Minister of Enterprise and Advanced Education.

In July 2013, he was named one of the 50 most influential Albertans for having “proven himself to be one of the most capable and influential members” of the government.

In a cabinet shuffle on December 6, 2013, he was replaced as Deputy Premier by Dave Hancock, Minister of Innovation and Advanced Education, and given responsibility for a new ministry of Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour.

Lukaszuk resigned from cabinet on May 22, 2014 in order to stand in the Alberta Progressive Conservative Association's leadership election after Redford was forced to resign from the premiership due to a scandal concerning her expenses.

During the campaign scandals arose regarding roaming charges of more than $20,000 charged to taxpayers during a personal vacation and revelations concerning the presence of his daughter on government flights.