1. Pearl Calahasen was born on 5 December 1952 and is a Canadian politician, who represented the electoral district of Lesser Slave Lake in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1989 to 2015.
11 Facts About Pearl Calahasen
1. 2.
Pearl Calahasen was born in 1952 and raised in Grouard, Alberta.
3.
Pearl Calahasen attended the University of Alberta, from which she received a Bachelor of Education, and the University of Oregon, from which she received a master's degree.
4.
Pearl Calahasen is a member of the Metis Nation of Alberta.
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Pearl Calahasen first sought election in the 1989 Alberta election, when she ran as the Progressive Conservative candidates in the riding of Lesser Slave Lake.
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At the time of her election in 1989, Pearl Calahasen was the first Metis woman elected to public office in Alberta.
7.
Pearl Calahasen served as a backbencher in Ralph Klein's government until 1996, when Klein appointed her Minister without Portfolio responsible for Children's Services.
8.
Pearl Calahasen served in this capacity until 1999, when she was shuffled to the position of Associate Minister of Aboriginal Affairs.
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Pearl Calahasen has sponsored a number of bills over her career in the legislature.
10.
In 1995, Pearl Calahasen sponsored the Colin Chor Wee Chew Legal Articles Act, another private bill which didn't progress to second reading.
11.
Pearl Calahasen sponsored the Public Health Amendment Act, designed to allow nurse practitioners to fulfill some of the functions of doctors in communities in which doctors were in short supply.