James Allen "Al" "Boomer" Adair (May 13, 1929 – December 24, 1996) was a minor league

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player, radio broadcaster and politician from

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada. He served in the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

from 1971 to 1993.

Early life

Adair played minor league

for the Peace River Stampeders in the North Peace Baseball League in the 1960s. After baseball he was a well known radio broadcaster in Peace River until he ran for political office in 1971.

Political career

Adair first ran for the Alberta legislature in the 1971 general election. Running as a candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party, he defeated incumbent Social Credit MLA Robert Wiebe in the electoral district of Peace River. He was appointed to the cabinet by Premier

Peter Lougheed Edgar Peter Lougheed ( ; July 26, 1928 – September 13, 2012) was a Canadian lawyer and Progressive Conservative politician who served as the tenth premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985, presiding over a period of reform and economic growth. ...

and served as the minister without portfolio responsible for native affairs. Adair was re-elected in the 1975 general election over three other candidates. After the election, Lougheed appointed him Minister of Recreation, Parks and Wildlife. In the 1979 Alberta general election, Adair easily defeated three other candidates to win the second highest popular vote of his political career. Adair reached the height of his popularity with a landslide win in the

1982 Alberta general election The 1982 Alberta general election was held on November 2, 1982, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. History Less than four years had passed since the Progressive Conservatives won their landslide victory in 1979. Premie ...

. When Don Getty became Premier in 1985, Adair became the new Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs. After the 1986 general election he was transferred to the Ministry of Transportation and Utilities. In the 1989 Alberta general election he took 66% of the popular vote, the highest of his career. Adair was left out of the cabinet when

Ralph Klein Ralph Philip Klein (November 1, 1942 – March 29, 2013) was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 12th premier of Alberta and leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta from 1992 until his retirement in 2 ...

became Premier in 1992. He retired from provincial politics with the dissolution of the Assembly in 1993.

Late life

After retiring from politics, Adair co-authored a book with Frank J. Dolphin titled ''Boomer: My Life with Peter, Don and Ralph'', which was published in 1994 by Polar Bear Publishing. He died of a heart attack on December 24, 1996, at the age of 67.Boomer' Adair dead at Age 67: INAL EditionSlade, Daryl. Calgary Herald algary, Alta26 Dec 1996: A.5. The Al 'Boomer' Adair Rec Centre in Peace River,

, is named in his honor.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adair, Al 1929 births 1996 deaths Canadian sportsperson-politicians Members of the Executive Council of Alberta Politicians from Edmonton Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs Sportspeople from Edmonton 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta

Early life

Political career

Late life

References

Further reading

External links