Ted Morton
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Ted Morton
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 2004 |
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| Preceded by | New District |
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Minister of Sustainable Resource Development in the Alberta government
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office December 15, 2006 |
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| Preceded by | David Coutts |
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| Political party | Progressive Conservative |
| Spouse | Patricia |
| Residence | Calgary, Alberta |
| Alma mater | Colorado College University of Toronto |
| Website | http://www.tedmorton.ca/ |
Frederick Lee (Ted) Morton (born March 28, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, United States) is a Canadian politician and current Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta representing the constituency of Foothills-Rocky View as a Progressive Conservative.
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[edit] Early life
In 1952, Morton moved with his parents to Casper, Wyoming, where his father, Warren A. Morton (1924-2002), worked in the oil and natural gas exploration business and was the Republican Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1979-1980 and his party's gubernatorial nominee in 1982. Morton's mother, Katharine Allen Morton (born 1926), was the daughter of former U.S. Representative Robert G. Allen, a Democrat from western Pennsylvania. Morton moved to Canada in 1981. In 1991, Morton and his wife, Patricia, became Canadian citizens.
[edit] Academic career
Morton obtained his B.A. from Colorado College and earned his Masters and Ph.D. in political economy from the University of Toronto. During his time in college, Morton was involved in protests against the Vietnam War. In 1981, Morton joined the faculty of the University of Calgary as a political science professor. He is currently on an extended leave of absence so that he can carry out political duties.
Morton is part of a group of academics called the Calgary School whose teaching and writing exercised a very significant influence on the future of conservatism in Canada.
He has published five books, one of which won the 1992 Alberta Writers' Guild award, and more than fifty scholarly articles. His columns have appeared in the National Post, the Calgary Herald, the Globe and Mail and the Calgary Sun.
[edit] Political career
Morton was an early supporter of the Triple-E Senate Committee and a public critic of the Meech Lake (1987) and Charlottetown (1992) Accords.
He was elected as a Reform Party Senator-in-Waiting in the 1998 Alberta Senate nominee election.
In 2001, Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day appointed him Parliamentary Director of Policy and Research for the party. That same year, he was one of a group of six Albertans (including Stephen Harper—later to become Prime Minister in 2006) who authored the "Alberta Agenda," also known as the "firewall letter," a manifesto that calls on the government of Alberta to use all of its constitutional powers to reduce the influence of the Federal government on the lives and personal finances of Albertans.
In the 2004 Alberta general election, Morton won the newly created seat of Foothills-Rocky View and now sits as an MLA for the Progressive Conservatives. In that role, he has advocated for tax cuts, against same-sex marriage, for increased saving of energy revenues, for a lobbyist registry, and for fixed election dates. A primary facet of his environmental policy was the revocation of Métis hunting rights.[1]
He was the only Progressive Conservative MLA to publicly oppose the Prosperity Bonus. Within six months of his election, the Calgary Herald gave Morton the highest grade of all new Calgary-area MLAs and rated him "most likely to succeed."
On December 15 2006 he was named Minister of Sustainable Resource Development.
[edit] Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership campaign
As a candidate in the 2006 Progressive Conservative leadership race Morton placed second to front runner Jim Dinning on the first ballot. The second ballot took place Saturday, 2 December, 2006. In the leadership campaign Morton's primary policies include:
- Maintaining publicly funded health care, while allowing private health care for non-emergency procedures.
- Providing fixed election dates, and maximum term lengths for the office of Premier.
- The creation of a lobbyist registry and strengthening of the office of auditor general.
- Promoting a bill that would ensure no Alberta laws penalized someone expressing disagreement with same-sex marriage, allow provincially appointed marriage commissioners to refuse to marry same-sex couples, and place restrictions on the teaching of marriage as including same-sex couples.
- Advocating "more Alberta, less Ottawa," including starting an Alberta pension plan, replacing the RCMP in Alberta with a provincial police force, and exercising greater provincial influence in the area of immigration.
- Ensuring that Alberta has greater control over its non-renewable energy resources.
[edit] Criticisms
Several figures have publicly expressed worry that Morton's private member Bill 208 (2006) would have the effect of protecting, in statute, public discrimination against gays and lesbians.[2]
Morton has been criticized by his constituents on the issue of logging in the beloved Kananaskis region. Under his watch, critics argue that part of Kananaskis Country, including part of the Trans Canada Trail, has been logged. Morton argues that the logging was done to prevent pine beetles, but many experts in the area[who?] disagree.[3][4]
[edit] Personal life
Morton and his wife, Patricia, have three children. In his spare time he enjoys hunting, fishing, gardening, cooking, and skiing.[5]
[edit] Election results
| 2008 Alberta general election results ( Foothills-Rocky View ) | Turnout 48.0% | |||
| Affiliation | Candidate | Votes | % | |
| Progressive Conservative | Ted Morton | 6,916 | 57.4% | |
| Liberal | Herb Coburn | 2,200 | 18.3% | |
| Wildrose Alliance | Joseph McMaster | 1,797 | 14.9% | |
| Green | Larry Ashmore | 937 | 7.8% | |
| NDP | Ricardo de Menezes | 196 | 1.6% | |
| 2004 Alberta general election results ( Foothills-Rocky View ) | Turnout 50.5% | |||
| Affiliation | Candidate | Votes | % |
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| Progressive Conservative | Ted Morton | 6,782 | 60.3% | |
| Liberal | Herb Coburn | 1,956 | 17.4% | |
| Alberta Alliance | Jason Herasemluk | 1,088 | 9.7% | |
| Green | Shelley Willson | 1,188 | 10.6% | |
| NDP | Roland Schmidt | 232 | 2.1% | |
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ "Ted Morton: Our future. Our choice for Alberta's next Premier" (pdf). https://secure.ewebspot.com/upload/w_tedmorton/documents/platform_brochure.pdf.
- ^ "Time runs out in Alta. for anti-gay marriage bill". CTV News. 2006-05-10. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060508/klein_gays_060508/20060508?hub=Canada.
- ^ "Science vs. Ideology: Ralph Cartar vs. Ted Morton". http://www.savekananaskis.ca/backpack/scienceideas.htm.
- ^ "Coming Soon! The Rape of Kananaskis". 2007-07-12. http://www.nowpublic.com/coming_soon_rape_kananaskis.
- ^ "Morton's Legislative Assembly of Alberta biography". http://www.assembly.ab.ca/net/index.aspx?p=mla_bio&rnumber=53.
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