Scott Brison

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Scott A. Brison Template:Post-nominals (born May 10, 1967) is a Canadian politician from Nova Scotia. Brison served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Kings—Hants from June 1997 to July 2000, and from November 2000 to February 2019. He was the first openly gay MP to sit as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party. In 2003, just days after the Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance voted to merge into the Conservative Party of Canada, Brison crossed the floor to join the Liberal Party.

Born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Brison graduated from Dalhousie University. After entering Parliament in 2000, he served as the Minister of Public Works and Government Services from 2004 until 2006 in the Paul Martin government. In 2005, he was named by the World Economic Forum as one of its "Young Global Leaders".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Opposition from 2006 to 2013, Brison has served as the Liberal Party's Finance Critic. He was President of the Treasury Board of Canada in Justin Trudeau's ministry until January 2019.

Brison announced on January 10, 2019, that he would not be standing in the 2019 federal election and stepped down from cabinet.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On February 6, 2019, he announced he was resigning his seat in the House of Commons of Canada effective February 10, 2019.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After leaving politics, Brison became Bank of Montreal's vice-chair of investment and corporate banking<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and is a member of the Canadian American Business Council's advisory board.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Early life and educationEdit

Brison was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, the son of Verna Patricia (née Salter) and Clifford Brison, who ran a grocery store.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He graduated from Hants West Rural High School, subsequently earning a Bachelor of Commerce from Dalhousie University in Halifax. While in Halifax, he operated a business renting small fridges – he has jokingly referred to himself as a "fridge magnate".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Brison then worked in corporate sales for ten years.

Political careerEdit

Brison entered politics as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the Nova Scotia riding of Kings—Hants in the 1997 election. He defeated incumbent John Murphy with 36.3% of the vote.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In July 2000, Brison resigned his seat so that PC leader Joe Clark could enter the House of Commons.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the interim, Brison was appointed co-chair of the Progressive Conservative Party's Election Policy Platform Committee,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and worked in investment banking at Yorkton Securities in Halifax.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

When the 2000 election was called in October, Clark stood for election in a Calgary, Alberta riding. Brison returned as the PC candidate in Kings—Hants, and was returned to Parliament.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2001, he served as the party's Finance and Industry critic, and was vice-chairman of the House of Commons Finance committee. Brison came out as gay in 2002,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and has said that he is "not a gay politician, but a politician who happens to be gay."<ref name=marriage/>

Progressive Conservative leadership bidEdit

In 2003, following Clark's retirement, Brison ran for the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> on a platform of "new ideas", that consisted of Employment Insurance reform, more private involvement in health care, integrated defence strategy with the US, and socially liberal policies. At the leadership convention, his campaign was dealt a crucial blow by John Herron who defected to the MacKay camp. Despite gaining votes on the second ballot, Brison was eliminated by three votes and threw his support to Jim Prentice.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Prentice lost on the final ballot to Peter MacKay (who won with the support of David Orchard). During this time he fought publicly with other members of his party, particularly Elsie Wayne, over their opposition to same-sex marriage.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Brison was highly critical of Larry Spencer's suggestion in an interview with The Vancouver Sun that gay sex should be criminalized, saying "statements like this have the potential to stigmatize the new party, so it's important that we denounce those statements strongly."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Crossing the floorEdit

On December 10, 2003, four days after Brison voted in favour of the PCs merging with the Canadian Alliance to form the new Conservative Party of Canada, Brison announced that he would cross the floor and sit as a Liberal MP.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Brison was critical of the Conservative Party, stating "I want to work with a party that I can support without reservation, a party fuelled by bold ideas, not rigid ideologies".<ref name="jump">Template:Cite news</ref> Brison spoke highly of Paul Martin, standing in contrast to his comments a year prior where he criticized Martin in a published essay. Fellow Nova Scotia MP Peter MacKay criticized Brison for crossing the floor, characterizing him as a hypocrite and stating that he "[couldn't] find any principle whatsoever in what's happened." MacKay claimed Brison was likely offered a reward by Martin for switching parties, and predicted that Brison would "fade into the background" of the Liberal Party.<ref name="jump"/> New Brunswick MP Greg Thompson accused Brison of being a "political opportunist".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Brison claimed his enthusiasm for the merger had become discernibly lukewarm in the final weeks before the vote. He indicated that he would honour his prior commitment to support the proposal, but said that he would reconsider his allegiance once the results were announced.Template:Citation needed

Cabinet MinisterEdit

On December 13, 2003, he was appointed as a parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with special emphasis on Canada-U.S. Relations and sworn into the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. In the 2004 election, Brison was re-elected, his first victory as a Liberal.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On July 20, 2004, Brison was named to cabinet as Minister of Public Works in Martin's post-election shuffle.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In doing so, he became Canada's first openly gay cabinet minister.<ref name=marriage>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

As the youngest member of cabinet, Brison also served on three cabinet committees – Treasury Board, Domestic Affairs, and Expenditure Review.<ref name="bio"/> Previously, he had served as vice-chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance, been a member of the Standing Committee on Industry, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.Template:Citation needed

He was also a member of the Canada-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group and has served as the vice-president of the Canadian group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union where he took part in conferences in Moscow and New York. He was also part of the Canadian delegation sent to two annual meetings of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London.Template:Citation needed

On November 4, 2015, he was appointed the Treasury Board President in Justin Trudeau's cabinet,<ref name=CbCTrudeauCabinet2015-11-04/> a position he held until the end of 2018. Brison initially committed to running in the 2019 federal election, however in December 2018 he decided to retire. The timing of his retirement was called into question, coming as he was currently involved in the controversy from the prosecution of Admiral Mark Norman.<ref name="norman">Template:Cite news</ref> Norman's lawyers alleged that Brison attempted to cancel a $668 million government leasing contract with Davie Shipbuilding on behalf of Irving Shipbuilding, a company from his home province of Nova Scotia which Norman's lawyers alleged Brison had close ties with. Brison repeatedly denied that the timing of his resignation was related to the case.<ref name="norman"/><ref name="cpip">Template:Cite news</ref> Announcing his decision to leave politics, Brison said at the time that it "feels very right" to him.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Liberal leadership bidEdit

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File:Ignatieff and Brison Ottawa 2010.jpg

Brison and Michael Ignatieff in Ottawa in 2010

On April 22, 2006, Brison entered the race for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His Liberal leadership platform emphasised both environmentalism and economic reform calling for a "green" platform that called for personal and corporate tax cuts to prompt business growth and curb pollution.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Brison won 4.0% of the vote on the first ballot with 192 delegates, leaving him in 6th place out of eight candidates.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He dropped out and threw his support behind Bob Rae.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> When Bob Rae dropped out on the third ballot and released his delegates, Scott Brison opted to support the politically similar Michael Ignatieff.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The final winner of the leadership convention was Stéphane Dion.