Donald Alfred Tannas (April 25, 1938 – November 26, 2023) was a Canadian provincial 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 ...

. He served as a Member of the Alberta Legislature from 1989 until 2004. He was born in Marwayne, Alberta.

Life and career

Tannas had a long history of being politically active. He ran for the Progressive Conservative nomination for Highwood in 1974 but lost to George Wolstenholme. He worked on the campaigns for Wolstenholme and later Harry Alger. He worked to fund-raise for the party and later served as President of the Highwood PC Association. After Alger announced his retirement, he ran for the PC nomination again in 1989 and won. Tannas was first elected to the Alberta Legislature in the

1989 Alberta general election The 1989 Alberta general election was held on March 20, 1989, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Many political observers were surprised by the early election call as less than three years had passed since the previous el ...

. He won a comfortable majority holding the Highwood electoral district for the Progressive Conservatives over Don Dearle of the Liberals and Janice Belgum of the New Democrats. He won his second term with a landslide majority in the

1993 Alberta general election The 1993 Alberta general election was held on June 15, 1993, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The Conservative government was re-elected, taking 51 seats out of 83 (61 percent of the seats) but only having support of 45 pe ...

defeating three other candidates. Tannas improved his plurality to sweep into office for a third term in the

1997 Alberta general election The 1997 Alberta general election was held on March 11, 1997, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The Progressive Conservative government led by Premier Ralph Klein won its eighth consecutive mandate going back to 1971, inc ...

. Tannas won the biggest plurality of his political career taking almost 80% of the vote in the

2001 Alberta general election The 2001 Alberta general election was held on March 12, 2001 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The incumbent Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, led by Ralph Klein, won ...

. He served as Deputy Speaker in his fourth term. He retired at the dissolution of the Assembly in 2004. Don Tannas died at a hospital in Calgary on November 26, 2023, at the age of 85. His son

Scott Tannas Scott Alfred Tannas (born February 25, 1962) is a Canadian senator and, since November 5, 2019, leader of the Canadian Senators Group, a parliamentary caucus. Tannas is the former President/CEO and founder of Western Financial Group (former ...

was appointed to the

Senate of Canada The Senate of Canada () is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons, they compose the Bicameralism, bicameral le ...

for the province of Alberta on March 25, 2013.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tannas, Don 1938 births 2023 deaths Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta