Deborah Cleland Grey (born July 1, 1952) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the leader of the Official Opposition in 2000, from March to September. Grey was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

in 1989, serving as the member of Parliament (MP) for Beaver River until 1997 and MP for

Edmonton North Edmonton North was a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1979 to 2004. Demographics Geography The riding consisted of the northern part of the city of Edmonton, Alberta. ...

until 2004. Grey was a member of the Reform Party. When Reform merged with the

Canadian Alliance The Canadian Alliance (), formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (), was a centre-right to right-wing federal political party in Canada that existed under that name from 2000 to 2003. The Canadian Alliance was the new name of the ...

in 2000, she served as the interim party leader, making her the first woman to serve as leader of the Opposition. She currently serves on the advisory board of the

Leaders' Debates Commission The Leaders' Debates Commission is the independent Canadian government agency which is charged with organizing leaders' debates during federal elections in Canada. In 2018, the commission was established to organize two debates, one in English ...

Before politics

Born in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, British Columbia, Grey pursued studies in sociology, English and education at Burrard Inlet Bible Institute,

Trinity Western College Trinity Western University (TWU) is a private Christian liberal arts university with campuses in both Langley and Richmond, British Columbia. The school is a member of Universities Canada. TWU was established in 1962 and enrols approximately ...

and the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

. She then worked as a teacher in a number of rural Alberta communities until 1989.

Political career

Grey's first run for office was in the 1988 election, when she ran as the Reform candidate in Beaver River, a mostly rural riding in northeastern Alberta. She finished a distant fourth behind Progressive Conservative John Dahmer. However, Dahmer died before he could be sworn in. Grey won a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

in March 1989, almost tripling her vote total from the 1988 election to become Reform's first MP. It was only the second time the Progressive Conservatives had lost a seat in Alberta since 1968. Party leader

Preston Manning Ernest Preston Manning (born June 10, 1942) is a retired Canadian 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 tu ...

immediately named her as Reform's deputy leader. The two were friends for many years; Grey calls him "Misterbrainiola". Her first legislative assistant was a young

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 ...

. Reform elected 52 MPs in the 1993 election, replacing the Progressive Conservatives as the main right-wing party in Canada. Grey won her first full term in this election. In addition to her duties as deputy leader, she also became chairwoman of the enlarged Reform caucus. In 1997, Beaver River was abolished and its territory split into two neighbouring ridings. Grey moved to

at the request of several local conservatives dissatisfied with being represented by a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

John Loney Edison John Clayton Loney (23 February 1929 – 22 January 2017) was a member of the House of Commons of Canada in the 1960s and again in the 1990s. His career has been in agriculture and business. Loney, a Progressive Conservative for most ...

(elected in the 1993 landslide). Loney retired ahead of that year's election, and Grey won handily. She continued to represent this riding for the remainder of her career. Reform became the

Official Opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...

in that election. Grey served as Reform's deputy leader and caucus chairwoman until March 2000, when the Reform Party was folded into the

. When Manning stepped down as

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

to contest the Alliance leadership race, Grey was appointed interim leader of the Alliance, and hence Leader of the Opposition. She was the first female Leader of the Opposition in Canadian history. She held the post until new Alliance leader

Stockwell Day Stockwell Burt Day Jr. (born August 16, 1950) is a former Canadian politician who served as leader of the Canadian Alliance from 2000 to 2001 and later as a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. A provincial cabinet minister from Alber ...

was elected to the

in September 2000. He appointed Grey as deputy leader and caucus chairwoman once again. Grey resigned those posts on April 24, 2001, in protest against Day's leadership. In July of that year, Grey quit the Canadian Alliance and joined 10 other Alliance dissidents in the "Independent Alliance Caucus". While

Chuck Strahl Charles Richard Strahl (February 25, 1957 – August 13, 2024) was a Canadian businessman and politician. He was a Member of Parliament from 1993 to 2011. First elected for the Reform Party, he was the leader of the Democratic Representative C ...

eventually emerged as the dissidents' leader, Grey lent the group instant credibility since she had been Reform/Alliance's matriarch as well as the deputy leader. When Day offered an amnesty to the dissidents, Grey was one of seven who turned it down and formed the

Democratic Representative Caucus The Democratic Representative Caucus, also called the Democratic Representative Association, was a parliamentary group in the 37th Canadian Parliament consisting of Members of Parliament who left the Canadian Alliance in 2001 in protest against t ...

(DRC), led by Strahl with Grey as deputy leader. In September 2001, the DRC formed a coalition caucus with the Progressive Conservatives, and Grey served as chairwoman of the PC-DRC caucus. She later said that she lost confidence in Day after seeing him attack his staffers after a public gaffe. In April 2002, after Harper defeated Day in the race to be the Alliance leader, Grey and all but two of the DRC MPs rejoined the Alliance caucus, and in December 2003, the Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives ratified an agreement to merge into the Conservative Party of Canada. Grey was co-chair, with former PC leader

Peter MacKay Peter Gordon MacKay (born September 27, 1965), a Canadian lawyer and politician, served as Member of Parliament (Canada), Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2015 and as Minister of Justice (Canada), Minister of Justice and Attorney General (20 ...

, of the new party's first leadership convention in March 2004. Grey was not shy about tossing verbal barbs at the governing Liberals. She called

Jean Chrétien Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a retired Canadian politician, statesman, and lawyer who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. He served as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, leader of t ...

"the Shawinigan Strangler",

Don Boudria Don Boudria (born August 30, 1949) is a former Canadian politician and current senior associate at Sandstone Group, an Ottawa-based executive advisory firm. He served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1984 to 2006 as a member of the Libera ...

"Binder Boy", Jane Stewart "Miss Management" and

Paul Martin Paul Edgar Philippe Martin (born August 28, 1938), also known as Paul Martin Jr., is a Canadian lawyer and retired politician who served as the 21st prime minister of Canada and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006. Th ...

"Captain Whirlybird". Deborah Grey is also well known for refusing to join the lucrative MP Pension Plan and ridiculing other "MP porkers" for feeding at the public trough. Later she bought her way back into the pension plan resulting in former Prime Minister Joe Clark labelling her the "high priestess of hypocrisy". Grey's riding of

was abolished for the 2004 federal election, and Grey retired from politics rather than attempting nomination in another. She was Western chairwoman of the Conservative campaign in the 2006 election, in which Harper became

Prime Minister of Canada The prime minister of Canada () is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the Confidence and supply, confidence of a majority of the elected House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons ...

Retirement

Shortly after retiring, she published her autobiography, '' Never Retreat, Never Explain, Never Apologize: My Life and My Politics.'' In 2007, she was made an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

. On April 22, 2013, she was appointed to the

Security Intelligence Review Committee The Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC; ) was a committee of Queen's Privy Council for Canada, Privy Councillors that was empowered to serve as an independent oversight and review body for the operations of the Canadian Security Intellige ...

, and along with that appointment, was made a Privy Councillor, giving her the title, "The Honourable". It was announced that Grey was stepping down from the Security Intelligence Review Committee on May 1, 2015, in a press release from the Prime Minister's Office.

Personal life

Grey has been married to Lewis Larson since August 7, 1993; they have no children together. They are grandparents through Lewis' children by his first marriage.

Election results

, - ,

, Jim Jacuta , align="right", 14,786 , align="right", 34.32% , align="right", , align="right", $28,846 ,

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

, Laurie Lang , align="right", 3,216 , align="right", 7.46% , align="right", , align="right", $815 , Progressive Conservative , Dean Sanduga , align="right", 3,010 , align="right", 6.98% , align="right", , align="right", $9,842 , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total valid votes !align="right", 43,075 !align="right", 100.00% !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total rejected ballots !align="right", 174 !align="right", 0.40% !align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Turnout !align="right", 43,249 !align="right", 57.20% !align="right", , - ,

, Jonathan Murphy , align="right", 11,820 , align="right", 32.47% , , align="right", $46,517 ,

, Ray Martin , align="right", 5,413 , align="right", 14.87% , , align="right", $60,286 , Progressive Conservative , Mitch Panciuk , align="right", 2,811 , align="right", 7.72% , , align="right", $51,169 ,

Natural Law Natural law (, ) is a Philosophy, philosophical and legal theory that posits the existence of a set of inherent laws derived from nature and universal moral principles, which are discoverable through reason. In ethics, natural law theory asserts ...

, Ric Johnsen , align="right", 226 , align="right", 0.62% , align="right", , align="right", , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total valid votes !align="right", 36,394 !align="right", 100.00% ! , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Total rejected ballots !align="right", 99 !align="right", 0.27% ! , - bgcolor="white" !align="right" colspan=3, Turnout !align="right", 36,493 !align="right", 55.63% !

References

External links

Official site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grey, Deborah 1952 births Living people Canadian Alliance MPs Canadian autobiographers Canadian women non-fiction writers Women members of the House of Commons of Canada Female Canadian political party leaders Leaders of the opposition (Canada) Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta Officers of the Order of Canada Politicians from Vancouver Reform Party of Canada candidates in the 1988 Canadian federal election Reform Party of Canada MPs Trinity Western University alumni University of Alberta alumni Canadian women autobiographers Women in Alberta politics Writers from Vancouver 20th-century Canadian women politicians 21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada 21st-century Canadian women politicians Women opposition leaders 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada