William Matthews (born July 22, 1947) is a

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

politician.

Political career

Matthews was a Progressive Conservative member of the

Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly The Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly () is the Unicameralism, unicameral deliberative assembly of the General Assembly of Newfoundland and Labrador of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It meets in the Confederation Bu ...

from 1982 to 1996. During this time, he was a cabinet minister, as Minister of Culture, Recreation and Youth from 1985 to 1988 and Minister of Career Development and Advanced Studies from 1988 to 1989. Matthews was later elected to the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

in 1997 as a member of the

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC; ) was a Centrism, centre to centre-right List of federal political parties in Canada, federal political party in Canada that existed from 1942 to 2003. From Canadian Confederation in 1867 unti ...

, representing the riding of Burin—St. George's. He

crossed the floor In some parliamentary systems (e.g., in Canada and the United Kingdom), politicians are said to cross the floor if they formally change their political affiliation to a political party different from the one they were initially elected under. I ...

to the Liberals in 1999, and continued to represent the riding until 2004. In that year's federal election, he was elected to the newly redistributed district of Random—Burin—St. George's, which he represented until 2008. Matthews is a former teacher. He is a former Parliamentary Secretary to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Deputy House Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, and Progressive Conservative critic of Fisheries and Oceans. In March 2007, Matthews called

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...

a "liar." While

Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hung ...

Peter Milliken Peter Andrew Stewart Milliken (born November 12, 1946) is a Canadian lawyer and politician. He was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 until his retirement in 2011 and served as Speaker of the House for 10 years beginning in 2 ...

didn't give in to demands from outraged Tories to throw Matthews out of the chamber, Milliken did not allow Matthews to rise in the House for what would be the last 14 months of Matthews' career. Matthews did not run for reelection in the 2008 election. In October 2018, Matthews was appointed as Chief of Staff to provincial PC leader

Ches Crosbie Chesley Furneaux "Ches" Crosbie, (born 12 June 1953) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician. Crosbie was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador on April 28, 2018 serving until March 31, 2021. He s ...

in the Opposition Office. Matthews contested the 2019 provincial election as the PC candidate in

Burin-Grand Bank Burin-Grand Bank is a provincial electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Newfoundland and Labrador represented by a member in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly. It was contested for the first time in the 2015 Newfoundland ...

, but was defeated by Liberal incumbent Carol Anne Haley.

Electoral record

NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National Dev ...

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Matthews, Bill 1947 births Liberal Party of Canada MPs Living people Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Newfoundland and Labrador Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador MHAs Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs People from Grand Bank 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada 21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada 20th-century members of the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly