Dave Hancock

Dave Hancock (2011)

David Graeme "Dave" Hancock (born August 10, 1955 in Fort Resolution , Northwest Territories ) is a Canadian politician . He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1997 to 2014 , and from April to September 2014, after the resignation of Alison Redford, he held the post of Prime Minister of the Province of Alberta on an interim basis .

biography

Hancock grew up in Hazelton in the province of British Columbia on. He attended high school in Fort Vermilion , northern Alberta, before moving to the capital, Edmonton , in 1972 . He was politically active for the first time from 1974 to 1976 as president of the youth organization of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta . Hancock studied law at the University of Alberta and after graduation worked as a partner in the law firm Matheson and Company, Barristers and Solicitors . From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the Progressive Conservatives (Note: Canadian party presidents are purely administrative).

On March 11, 1997, Hancock was elected to the Legislative Assembly, where he represented the Edmonton-Whitemud constituency. Immediately thereafter, Prime Minister Ralph Klein appointed him to the cabinet and appointed him Minister for Interstate Relations and Native Affairs. In this role he was responsible for the creation of the Aboriginal Policy Framework , which put the relations between the provincial government and representatives of the indigenous people on a new legal basis.

Two years after taking office, Hancock was promoted to Justice Secretary and parliamentary group leader. During his tenure as Minister of Justice, he sought to significantly limit the number of conditional prison sentences for violent crimes and drunk driving . He also created an alert system to identify chronically drunk drivers in Alberta and introduced specialized courts for domestic violence. After the 2001 elections, he also held the office of Attorney General .

Ralph Klein named Hancock Minister of Higher Education following the 2004 election. He successfully pushed through the Access to the Future Act , which raised $ 1 billion for a foundation to advance higher education. Hancock resigned as minister in April 2006 and announced his intention to run for chairmanship. He failed in the first ballot, with the fifth best result among the eight candidates. After Ed Stelmach became the new Prime Minister, Hancock was appointed Minister of Health. Among other things, he improved access to cardiology and cancer therapies. In March 2008 he took over the Ministry of Education, in particular increasing financial support for private schools. From December 2013 he was finally Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Innovation and Higher Education.

Following the announcement of Alison Redford's resignation as both party leader and prime minister, Hancock was elected interim party leader on March 20, 2014 by the progressive-conservative parliamentary group. The appointment as Prime Minister followed three days later. After almost five months in office, Hancock stepped down from all positions on September 23, 2014, and was succeeded by Jim Prentice .

Web links

• Dave Hancock's website