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Jean Friesen

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Jean Friesen (born July 30, 1943) is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. She served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba[1] for thirteen years, and was a member of New Democratic Premier Gary Doer's cabinet from 1999 to 2003.

Friesen was born in Oldham, Lancashire, in England, and moved to Canada at a young age, when her father, Reg Edwards, took up a teaching position at McGill University.[2] She received a bachelor's degree from McGill University and a PhD from the University of British Columbia during the 1960s. Friesen was employed by the National Museum of Canada from 1967 to 1973, and has been a faculty member in the University of Manitoba's Department of History since that time. In 1991, she co-edited a work entitled Aboriginal Resource Use in Canada: Historical and Legal Aspects.

Friesen was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1990 provincial election, defeating incumbent Liberal Harold Taylor by over one thousand votes in the central-Winnipeg riding of Wolseley. The election was won by the Progressive Conservatives, and Friesen joined nineteen other New Democrats in the official opposition. In the 1995 provincial election, she was re-elected for Wolseley in a landslide. Also in 1995, she supported Lorne Nystrom for the federal New Democratic Party leadership.

The NDP were victorious in the election of 1999, and Friesen again scored an easy victory in her own riding. She was appointed Deputy Premier of Manitoba and Minister of Intergovernment Affairs on October 5, 1999, also receiving ministerial responsibility for Cooperative Development on September 25, 2002. Also in 2002, she defended the provincial government's controversial decision to spray malathion in the Winnipeg area, as a means of controlling the city's insect population during an outbreak of West Nile fever.

In 2003, she supported Bill Blaikie's campaign to lead the federal New Democratic Party.

Friesen did not run for re-election in 2003, and formally stepped down from cabinet on June 25 of that year. She has subsequently returned to her teaching position at the University of Manitoba, and in 2004 issued a work entitled Magnificent Gifts: The Treaties of Canada with Indians of the Northwest, 1869-76.

Election results

[edit]
1990 Manitoba general election: Wolseley
Party Candidate Votes %
Liberal Harold Taylor (incumbent) 2,520 33.9
New Democratic Jean Friesen 3,265 43.9
Progressive Conservative Fay Campbell 1,503 20.2
Progressive Gordon Pratt 149 2.0
Total valid votes 7,437 100.00


Source: Elections Manitoba[3]
1995 Manitoba general election: Wolseley
Party Candidate Votes %
Liberal Marilyn MacKinnon 1,577 22.0
New Democratic Jean Friesen (incumbent) 4,048 56.4
Progressive Conservative David Kovnats 1,555 21.7
Total valid votes 7,180 100.00


Source: Elections Manitoba[4]
1999 Manitoba general election: Wolseley
Party Candidate Votes %
Green Phyllis Abbé 356 4.7
New Democratic Jean Friesen (incumbent) 5,282 69.2
Progressive Conservative Carol Friesen 1,685 22.1
Communist David Allison 133 1.7
Total valid votes 7,456 100.00


Source: Elections Manitoba[5]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "New MLAs elected in Manitoba". Toronto Star. September 12, 1990. pp. A.32. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  2. ^ May, Cedric (March 2021). "Québec and Canadian Studies in Britain: reflections of a pioneer". British Journal of Canadian Studies. 33 (1): 105–119. doi:10.3828/bjcs.2021.6. ISSN 0269-9222.
  3. ^ "Candidates: 35th General Election" (PDF). Elections Manitoba.
  4. ^ "Candidates: 36th General Election" (PDF). Elections Manitoba.
  5. ^ "Candidates: 37th General Election" (PDF). Elections Manitoba.