Joseph Oliver, (born May 20, 1940) is a Canadian politician who served as

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

from 2014 to 2015. He was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

in the 2011 federal election and represented the electoral district of

Eglinton—Lawrence Eglinton—Lawrence is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1979. It covers a portion of Toronto northwest of downtown. It stretches from Yonge Street in the ea ...

as a member of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

until his defeat in the 2015 election. In 2017 Oliver was named non-executive chairman of the board of Echelon Wealth Partners, an independent, Canadian-owned and -operated wealth management and capital markets firm. In March 2019 he was appointed to the board of directors of the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO).

Early life and career

Oliver was born and raised in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, to a Jewish family. His father was a dentist and his mother was a teacher. He grew up attending

Congregation Shaar Hashomayim Congregation Shaar Hashomayim () is an Ashkenazi synagogue in Westmount, Quebec. Incorporated in 1846, it is the oldest traditional Ashkenazi synagogue in Canada and the largest traditional synagogue in Canada. History Former building of Sha ...

. He is married to Golda Goldman and has two sons, David and Jeffrey. Oliver received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961 and a Bachelor of Civil Law degree in 1964 from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

. He received an MBA from the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

in 1970. Following his studies he became an investment banker with

Merrill Lynch Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment bank ...

and then Nesbitt Thomson. He became executive director of the

Ontario Securities Commission The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is a regulatory agency which administers and enforces securities legislation in the Canadian province of Ontario. The OSC is an Ontario Crown agency which reports to the Ontario legislature through the Minis ...

and was also named the CEO of the

Investment Dealers Association of Canada The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC; ''Organisme canadien de réglementation du commerce des valeurs mobilières'' or ''OCRCVM'' in French) is a non-profit, national self-regulatory organization (SRO). Established thro ...

Political career

2008 and 2011 elections

Oliver ran in the Toronto riding of Eglinton—Lawrence in the 2008 election, but lost to the longtime Liberal incumbent,

Joe Volpe Giuseppe "Joe" Volpe (born September 21, 1947) is a Canadian politician. He represented the Ontario riding of Eglinton-Lawrence as a member of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 until 2011, when he lost his seat t ...

. In the 2011 election, he defeated Volpe to win the seat.

Minister of Natural Resources

On May 18, 2011, Oliver was sworn in as the

Minister of Natural Resources The minister of natural resources () is the minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). In addition to NRCan, the minister oversees the federal government's natural resources portfolio ...

. In June 2011, Oliver repeated Harper's campaign promise to support Quebec's

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

industry, by claiming that chrysotile asbestos, a

carcinogen A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive substan ...

, could be used "in a safe and controlled manner." As Natural Resources Minister, Oliver also oversaw

SNC-Lavalin SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is a Canadian company based in Montreal that provides engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services to various industries, including mining and metallurgy, oil and gas, environment and water, infrastructure, a ...

's purchase of

Atomic Energy of Canada Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) is a Canadian federal Crown corporation and Canada's largest nuclear science and technology laboratory. AECL developed the CANDU reactor technology starting in the 1950s, and in October 2011 licensed thi ...

. Oliver has also defended pipeline projects for Canada's oil sands such as

Keystone XL The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and as of 31 March 2020 the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta ...

and the

Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines were a project to build a twin pipeline from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitimat, British Columbia. The eastbound pipeline would have imported natural gas condensate and the westbound pipeline would have exporte ...

. In a January 2012 open letter defending Keystone XL Oliver called Canadians who opposed the project "radicals" who "use funding from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada’s national economic interest." During his time as natural resources minister, the ministry's advertising budget grew from $237,000 in 2010–11 to $40 million in 2012–13. Also under Oliver, the regulatory checks on the energy industry's super-projects such as Keystone were streamlined.

Minister of Finance

On March 19, 2014, Oliver was appointed to replace

Jim Flaherty James Michael Flaherty (December 30, 1949 – April 10, 2014) was a Canadian politician who served as the federal minister of finance from 2006 to 2014 under Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. First elected to the Legislative Assembly ...

. In January 2015, Oliver announced that the budget would not be tabled until April, instead of the usual February to March, because of economic uncertainty caused by the rapid drop in oil prices. On April 21, 2015, Oliver presented the federal budget, which projected a $1.4 billion surplus by taking $2 billion from the country's contingency fund.

2015 Election

During the

2015 Canadian federal election The 2015 Canadian federal election held on October 19, 2015, saw the Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, win 184 seats, allowing it to form a majority government with Trudeau becoming the next prime minister. The election was held to elect m ...

, Canada was officially declared to be in a recession and fellow cabinet minister

Jason Kenney Jason Thomas Kenney (born May 30, 1968) is a Canadian former politician who served as the 18th premier of Alberta from 2019 until 2022 and the leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) from 2017 until 2022. He also served as the member of ...

, who unlike Oliver, was running in a safe riding, was the primary Conservative spokesperson on the economy. Meanwhile, Oliver kept a low profile: he cancelled two speaking events at men's only clubs in Toronto, discreetly attended a

G20 The G20 or Group of Twenty is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, ...

conference in Turkey, and focused on winning his riding. Oliver lost the seat to Liberal challenger

Marco Mendicino Marco Mendicino (; born July 28, 1973) is a Canadian politician who has been the Minister of Public Safety since October 26, 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, Mendicino represents Eglinton—Lawrence in the House of Commons, sitting as a membe ...

Attempted political comeback

Oliver announced in October 2016 that he was seeking the nomination of the

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (french: Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada ...

York Centre York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a m ...

for the 2018 provincial election. On January 15, 2017, Oliver lost the nomination to 36-year-old lawyer Roman Baber by a margin of 711 to 465 votes.

Electoral record

Boards of directors

Oliver is on the board of directors of the High Arctic Energy Services, Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) and the

Manning Centre Ernest Preston Manning (born June 10, 1942) is a Canadian retired politician. He was the founder and the only leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a Canadian federal political party that evolved into the Canadian Alliance in 2000 which in tur ...

References

External links

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Oliver, Joe 1940 births Anglophone Quebec people Canadian Ministers of Finance Conservative Party of Canada MPs Jewish Canadian politicians Living people Harvard Business School alumni McGill University alumni Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada Merrill (company) people Mining ministers of Canada Politicians from Montreal Politicians from Toronto Members of the 28th Canadian Ministry McGill University Faculty of Law alumni