Editing Andy Savoy (section)

==Entrance to politics==
Elected to the Perth-Andover village council in 1989, he represented the village on the [[Grand Falls Regional Economic Development Commission]] before resigning in 1991, when he moved to Fredericton to work for the [[Research and Productivity Council]].

In [[2000 Canadian federal election|2000]], Savoy ran for [[Parliament of Canada|Parliament]] in the [[Canadian conservatism|conservative]]-minded [[electoral district (Canada)|riding]] [[Tobique—Mactaquac]] for the [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal Party]].  Savoy defeated the [[incumbent]]-[[Member of Parliament (Canada)|Member of Parliament]] (MP), [[Progressive Conservative Party of Canada|Progressive Conservative]] [[Gilles Bernier (New Brunswick politician)|Gilles Bernier]] by only 150 votes.  His share of the vote was only 34%, compared to 33% for Bernier and 29% for [[Canadian Alliance]] candidate [[Adam Richardson (politician)|Adam Richardson]]—the smallest [[Plurality (voting)|plurality]] of any successful candidate in that election.

After his first election, he became the first MP from [[Atlantic Canada]] to be elected chair of the Rural [[Caucus]] of the Liberal Party.  On February 4, 2004, he was elected [[caucus chair|chair]] of the National Liberal Caucus, the first Atlantic Canadian to hold the post since [[Brian Tobin]] in the 1980s.

Despite his success in his first term in office, pundits suggested that Savoy faced a tough battle for [[2004 Canadian federal election|re-election]] especially with the creation of the new [[Conservative Party of Canada]] out of the old Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties whose combined vote in 2000 was 63%.  This was not the case as Savoy was re-elected by a margin of 3,008 votes, beating the Conservative candidate [[Mike Allen (New Brunswick politician)|Mike Allen]] 48% to 39%.  However, in the [[2006 Canadian federal election|2006 election]] his luck did not continue, his party lost the election nationally and he too was defeated by Allen by a margin of 254 votes.

[[New Brunswick Liberal Association|Provincial Liberal]] leader [[Shawn Graham]] made comments in the press immediately following Savoy's federal defeat stating that he would be very excited to have Savoy stand under his banner for election to the [[Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick]] in the [[56th New Brunswick general election|next provincial election]], however Savoy did not offer as a candidate.

He supported [[Bob Rae]]'s bid for the [[2006 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election|Liberal leadership in 2006]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20061116101645/http://www.bobrae.ca/en/pressreleases.php#43]

{{s-start}}
{{succession box
| title = Member of Parliament for [[Tobique—Mactaquac]]
| before = [[Gilles Bernier (New Brunswick politician)|Gilles Bernier]], [[Progressive Conservative Party of Canada|Progressive Conservative]]
| after = [[Mike Allen (New Brunswick politician)|Mike Allen]], [[Conservative Party of Canada|Conservative]]
| years = 2000-2006
}}
{{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Savoy, Andy}}
[[Category:1963 births]]
[[Category:Liberal Party of Canada MPs]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from New Brunswick]]
[[Category:People from Perth-Andover]]
[[Category:21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada]]