43 Facts About Shawn Graham

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

Shawn Graham 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.

Shawn Graham's 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.

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

Shawn 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.

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.

Shawn 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, a former leadership contender and the interim leader following the resignation of Theriault.

Surprising many pundits, Shawn 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shawn Graham 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 early 2006, Shawn Graham set out on a tour of the northeast United States, Washington, DC 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.

Shawn 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.

Shawn Graham said he would pursue education, economic development and energy as three key issues during the campaign.

Shawn Graham stated that if he did not win the election, he would resign as Liberal leader.

Shawn Graham won the 2006 election by taking 29 out of the 55 seats in the legislature despite the Liberals narrowly trailing the Progressive Conservatives in the popular vote.

Shawn Graham was elected premier under a platform called the Charter for Change, he pledged to focus on "the three Es": energy, education and the economy.

Shawn Graham pledged to make the province self-sufficient, that is to no longer depend on federal equalization payments, by 2026.

Shawn Graham's Liberals maintained the lead in a number of polls despite addressing a number of controversial issues such as post-secondary education reform, French second-language education, a bailout of a credit union and the restructuring of the province's public health care administration.

On September 20,2006, Shawn Graham appointed a transition team to begin to transfer power headed by Doug Tyler.

On his first day in office, Shawn Graham acted on five campaign promises.

Shawn Graham, who has a background in athletics competing in the 1985 Canada Games for New Brunswick in track and field, wanted to take the portfolio to ensure it was a priority in large part to fight childhood obesity in the province, which is the highest in the country.

Shawn Graham appointed a president of NB Liquor and deputy ministers for the Department of Energy and the Department of Justice and Consumer Affairs to replace Conservative political appointees who had resigned when Graham took office.

Shawn Graham appointed former cabinet minister Bernard Theriault as his chief of staff and his former Opposition chief of staff Chris Baker to be secretary of the Policy and Priorities Committee of Cabinet.

Shortly after the first anniversary of his election, Shawn Graham shuffled his cabinet.

Shawn Graham added two new ministers: outgoing speaker Eugene McGinley and Wally Stiles.

Shawn Graham announced that the government would forgo the recommendations about creating polytechnics, but would follow through on recommendations to greater integrate the universities and colleges in the province, and promised at least $90 million in new money.

Shawn Graham began the third year of his mandate in October 2008.

The third legislative session of Shawn Graham's government began with a throne speech on November 25,2008.

Shawn Graham's Liberals improved their showing in all three ridings, and won two counting this one.

In June 2009, Shawn Graham's government granted $50 million in loan guarantees, which was in addition to previous assistance granted to the company totalling about $20 million which had been provided by governments of both political stripes over the years.

Shawn Graham eventually failed anyway and the Progressive Conservatives filed an allegation of conflict of interest against Graham which was not resolved until after his government left office.

In October 2009 Premier Shawn Graham announced a Memorandum of Understanding between the provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec proposing to sell the New Brunswick Power electricity generation, transmission and distribution network to the Quebec government-owned Hydro-Quebec electricity corporation.

On September 27,2010, Shawn Graham lost his bid to be re-elected as Premier to provincial PC leader David Alward, but remained MLA for Kent riding.

Shawn Graham stepped down as leader of the party on November 9,2010; Victor Boudreau was selected as the party's interim leader the following day.

Shawn Graham said he remained in office in part to allow for the completion of an investigation that had been launched by a political opponent about the granting of financial support to the Atcon companies.

The report found that Shawn Graham's father had a business interest in Atcon and that "the furthering of his father's private interest although serious, was incidental to the financial aid" Shawn Graham's government had granted to Atcon.

Shawn Graham stepped down as MLA for the riding of Kent on March 11,2013, and paid the fine even though his resignation meant he had no legal obligation to do so.