Gary N. Severtson (born March 18, 1944) is a former farmer, and provincial level 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 as a member of 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 1989 to 2001.

Early life

Severtson had been working as a farmer since the 1960s. In 1982 he joined the

Olds College Olds College of Agriculture & Technology is an Alberta public post-secondary institution located in Olds, Alberta, established in 1913 as Olds Agricultural College. Total student enrolment for the 2020–2021 academic year was 5446. The college ...

Board of Governors and served his first stint until 1989.

Political career

Severtson was 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 the Innisfail electoral district easily over two other candidates. Innisfail was abolished due to redistribution, he ran in the new

Innisfail-Sylvan Lake Innisfail-Sylvan Lake is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. It is one of 87 current districts mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting. The distr ...

electoral district and won his second term in office 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 ...

. He would defeat five candidates in that election including George Flake who went on to lead the Alberta Political Alliance. Severtson introduced Bill 212 ''The Teaching Profession Amendment Act''. The bill was opposed strongly by the Alberta Teachers Association as it would have made membership in the union optional for those in the teaching profession. The bill was withdrawn voluntarily but was later reintroduced in February 1995 as Bill 210. The second bill was defeated on second reading 56 to 12 on a recorded division. In September 1995 Severtson along with four other MLA's joined the board of directors for 668344 Alberta Ltd. founded by

Calgary Shaw Calgary-Shaw is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. The district is one of 87 current districts mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting. This urba ...

MLA

Jon Havelock Jonathan Niles Havelock is a former politician who served as an MLA and provincial Cabinet Minister from Alberta, Canada. Jon Havelock was elected as the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta The Progressive Conservative Associati ...

. The company became unofficially known as ''Tory Oil''. The company drew the attention of ethics Commissioner

Robert Clark Robert, Bob, or Bobby Clark may refer to: Television and film *Robert Clark (actor) (born 1987), American-born Canadian television actor *Bob Clark (1939–2007), Canadian filmmaker *Bob Clark (television reporter) (1922–2015), American televisi ...

who had a public show down with Havelock in 1997. Severtson was re-elected to his 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 ...

. He won the district with the largest plurality of his electoral career defeating three other candidates. In 1997 Severtson chaired the School Facilities Task Force. The task force under his leadership wrote a report after extensive public consultation. The report warned about student population growth in under served areas and lack of money for infrastructure. The report was submitted to be enacted by former Minister of Finance

Gary Mar Gary Glen Mar , (; born July 26, 1962) is a Canadian businessman and former politician in Alberta. He is currently the President and CEO of the Canada West Foundation. Mar served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1993 to ...

. He retired at dissolution of the Legislature in 2001.

Late life

After retiring from provincial politics, Severtson re-joined the Olds College Board of Governors.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Severtson, Gary Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs Living people 1944 births 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta