William Graham (politician, 1939)

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Bill Graham

William C. "Bill" Graham PC (born March 17, 1939 in Montreal , Canada ) is a Canadian politician. He was Secretary of State from 2002 to 2004 and Minister of Defense of Canada from 2004 to February 2006 . From February / March to December 2006 he was executive chairman of the Liberal Party of Canada and opposition leader in the Canadian House of Commons .

Life

Graham grew up in Vancouver . He completed his law studies in Canada and Paris with a doctorate . Graham practiced as a lawyer in Toronto and has lectured in private and commercial international law and European Community law at the University of Toronto.

In the 1980s he ran unsuccessfully twice for a constituency of the Canadian House of Commons in Toronto, only Graham's third candidacy for this constituency in a row was successful in 1993. Since then he has represented this constituency in parliament. In February 2007 he announced that he would no longer run for re-election in the next election in 2011.

Graham specialized politically in foreign policy . From 1995 until his appointment as Foreign Minister in 2002, he chaired the Parliament's Committee on Foreign Policy and International Trade, which also led to his appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs. During a cabinet reshuffle in 2004, he moved to the defense department. During his time as defense minister he set the greatest increase of the defense budget since World War II by a total of 13 billion CAD in five years. When the liberal-led government lost the election in January 2006, Graham took over leadership of the party until the next party congress at the end of 2006.

Graham advocates the legal equality of homosexuals domestically, in particular he advocates the right to marriage for same-sex couples.

Graham is married and has two children.

Web links

Commons : William C. "Bill" Graham  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Biographical information on http://www.billgraham.ca/index.asp?page=about&lang=EN (link not available)
  2. ↑ Biographical information on the website of the Canadian Parliament ( Memento of July 17, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  3. ↑ Biographical information on the website of the Liberal Party of Canada ( Memento from September 20, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  4. ↑ parliamentary speech Grahams on the law on civil marriage , site of the initiative Canadians for Equal Marriage (English)
personal data
SURNAME Graham, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Graham, William C .; Graham, Bill
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian politician
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Montreal