James Francis Dinning (born December 4, 1952) is a Canadian Progressive Conservative politician and businessman. He was 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 ...

(1986–1997), and now is on the

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

of several Canadian companies. Dinning ran for the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives to replace

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 ...

Premier of Alberta The premier of Alberta is the head of government and first minister of the Canadian province of Alberta. The current premier is Danielle Smith, leader of the governing United Conservative Party, who was sworn in on October 11, 2022. The premi ...

. Dinning raised over $2 million for his leadership bid but was ultimately defeated by Ed Stelmach when party members voted for Klein's replacement on December 2, 2006. In June 2010, he was selected as the 12th Chancellor of the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

. Dinning is an advisor to Canada's Ecofiscal Commission.

Political history

After graduating at Western Canada High School in 1970, Dinning went on to obtain his

Bachelor of Commerce A Bachelor of Commerce (BCom or B Com) is an undergraduate degree in commerce, accounting, mathematics, economics, and management-related subjects. The degree is mainly offered in Commonwealth nations. Structure Bachelor of Commerce The Bac ...

honours degree from Queen's University in 1974. He also earned a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in Public Administration from Queen's in 1977. Elected in the riding of Calgary-Shaw in 1986, Dinning held the riding until 1993. During this time he served in a variety of positions within the provincial government. He was the Minister of Community and Occupational Health from 1986 to 1988, the Minister of Education from 1988 to 1992, and he served as the Provincial Treasurer from 1992 to 1997. In 2006, Dinning ran for leadership of the

Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, often referred to as the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta, was a provincial centre-right party in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta that existed fro ...

party. Dinning ultimately lost the party election to Ed Stelmach as a result of a second ballot vote on December 2, 2006. During much of the campaign, he held at least a 20-point lead over his closest competitor and over a 40-point lead on Stelmach. Today he is a corporate director, advisor and consultant to various companies, not-for-profits and governments.

Electoral record

1986

Calgary-Shaw *Jim Dinning ( PC) 6,694 61.5% *Brendan Dunphy ( Lib) 2,727 25.1% *Len Curie ( NDP) 1,166 10.7% *Byron L. Chenger ( Rep) 295 2.7%

1989

Calgary-Shaw *Jim Dinning ( PC) 7,412 52.9% (-8.6%) *Bob Crump ( Lib) 4,865 34.7% (+9.7%) *Gordon M. Christie ( NDP) 1,728 12.3% (+1.6%)

1993

Calgary-Lougheed (''compared to Calgary-Shaw, which covered much of the same area in southwest Calgary'') *Jim Dinning ( PC) 7,280 52.8% (-0.2%) *Jack Driscoll ( Lib) 5,803 42.1% (+7.3%) *Catherine Rose ( NDP) 502 3.6% (-8.7%) *Peter Hope ( CoR) 122 0.9% (-) *Ida Bugmann ( NLP) 88 0.6% (-)

Career history

After retiring from active politics in 1997, he was a senior vice-president and then executive vice-president of TransAlta Corporation from August 1997 to December 2004. Today, Dinning serves on the board of Russel Metals Inc. and Heritage Resource Royalty. Previously he has served on the boards of Liquor Stores NA Ltd, Western Financial Group, and Western Investment Company of Canada Ltd where he was chair of those boards. He also was a director of Parkland Fuel Corp., Finning International, and

Shaw Communications Shaw Communications Inc. was a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian telecommunication, telecommunications company which provided telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. The company was founded in 1966 as Capital Cable Televisio ...

. He was chair of

Export Development Canada Export Development Canada (EDC; ) is Canada's export credit agency and a Crown corporation wholly owned by the Government of Canada. Its mandate is to support and develop trade between Canada and other countries, and help Canada's competitiveness ...

and the Canada West Foundation, and served a four year term as chancellor of the

. Dinning was the chair of the Calgary Health Region from 1999 to 2001. He was a governor of the

Banff Centre Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (formerly Banff Centre) is an arts and culture educational institution in Banff, Alberta, Banff, Alberta. It offers arts programs in the Performing arts, performing and fine arts, as well as leadership trai ...

, and served as a director the Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN), and the Alberta Energy Research Institute. The

honoured Dinning in 2002 with an honorary doctorate. In 2011, he joined former Alberta Premier

when together they were honoured by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation with their TaxFighter Award. He was made a Fellow of the Institute for Corporate Directors in 2015. He was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2015.

References

External links

*University of Calgary Senate websit
Executive profile
(2003) - by Pacific Northwest Economic Region

(April 21, 2005) - by Canadian National Institute for the Blind {{DEFAULTSORT:Dinning, Jim 1952 births Living people Businesspeople from Calgary Businesspeople from Edmonton Canadian Anglicans Ministers of finance of Alberta Members of the Executive Council of Alberta Members of the Order of Canada Politicians from Calgary Politicians from Edmonton Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs Queen's University at Kingston alumni Western Canada High School alumni 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta