Gary Clayton Burrill (born 1955)Burrill, Gary, 1955- MemoryNS is a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
politician and was the leader of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party from 2016 until 2022. He served as leader during two Nova Scotia general elections in 2017 and 2021. He announced he'd be stepping down as leader after the 2021 election and was succeeded by Claudia Chender on June 25, 2022.
Early life and education
Born in
Woodstock, New Brunswick
Woodstock is a town in Carleton County, New Brunswick, Canada on the Saint John River, 103 km upriver from Fredericton at the mouth of the Meduxnekeag River. It is near the Canada–United States border and Houlton, Maine and the inte ...
, his father was a United Church minister. In 1978, he graduated from Queen's University with a Masters of Arts in History. Burrill taught sociology at
Mount Saint Vincent University
Mount Saint Vincent University, often referred to as the Mount, is a public, primarily undergraduate, university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and was established in 1873. Mount Saint Vincent offers undergraduate programs in Arts, S ...
, Saint Mary's University, and the Maritime School of Social Work. He later graduated with a
Masters of Divinity
For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and ...
from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
, and in 1992 he was ordained as a minister in the
United Church of Canada
The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...
Nova Scotia House of Assembly
The Nova Scotia House of Assembly (french: Assemblée législative de la Nouvelle-Écosse; gd, Taigh Seanaidh Alba Nuadh), or Legislative Assembly, is the deliberative assembly of the General Assembly of Nova Scotia of the province of Nova Scotia ...
Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley
Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley is a provincial electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.
The district was created in 1978 from Colchester, and was called Colchester South until 1993 ...
as a member of the
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic:
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until his defeat in the 2013 election.
Burrill was the ministerial assistant for the Minister of Community Services (Housing), and chair of the Veteran's Affairs Committee of the Nova Scotia Legislature, in the government of
Darrell Dexter
Darrell Elvin Dexter (born 1957) is a Canadian lawyer, journalist and former naval officer who served as the 27th premier of Nova Scotia from 2009 to 2013. A member of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party, he served as party leader from 2001 t ...
.
On June 11, 2015, Burrill announced he was running for the leadership of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party. On February 27, 2016, Burrill was elected as leader of the party, winning on the second counting of ballots in the
instant-runoff voting
Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a type of Ranked voting, ranked preferential Electoral system, voting method. It uses a Majority rule, majority voting rule in single-winner elections where there are more than two candidates. It is commonly referr ...
system used for this election.
In July 2016, Burrill announced that he would seek the NDP nomination in
Halifax Chebucto
Halifax Chebucto is a provincial electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.
It is one of several ridings within the Halifax Regional Municipality. It encompasses the neighbourhood kno ...
for the 2017 election. He defeated Joachim Stroink in the election to return to the legislature. Under Burrill's leadership in the 2017 election, the NDP took seven seats, the same number the party received on election night in 2013 but two more than it held going into the election.
In the August 2021 provincial election, Burrill was re-elected, along with five other NDP MLAs, all women. On November 9, 2021, Burrill announced he would step down as party leader, but would remain on until a new leader was chosen at a convention within the year. On May 21, 2022 registration closed for the leadership race, with
Claudia Chender
Claudia Chender (born 1977) She was confirmed as leader after a general membership vote on June 25, 2022 in Dartmouth and Burrill then formally stepped down as leader.