Robert Wagner Dowling (September 28, 1924 – March 4, 2019) was a 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 1969 to 1979 sitting as a member of the Progressive Conservative caucus. During his time in office he served a few different Cabinet portfolios in the government of Premier

Peter Lougheed Edgar Peter Lougheed ( ; July 26, 1928 – September 13, 2012) was a Canadian lawyer and Progressive Conservative politician who served as the tenth premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985, presiding over a period of reform and economic growth. ...

Early life

Robert Wagner Dowling was born in

Camrose, Alberta Camrose ( ) is a city in central Alberta, Canada that is surrounded by Camrose County. Located along Alberta Highway 13, Highway 13 it had its beginnings as a railroad hub. History The area around Camrose was first settled by Europeans around ...

on September 28, 1924. He was the son of Harold James Dowling and Emma Maude Wagner, and was educated in Camrose, at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

and at 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 ...

. In 1952, he married Olga Louise Yewchin. Dowling served in the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Can ...

from 1942 to 1945. Before entering politics, he was a pharmacist and owned three drug stores and a patent medicine store.

Political career

Dowling ran for a seat to the Alberta Legislature in a by-election held on October 28, 1969 in the electoral district of Edson. He won a hotly contested race defeating three other candidates including

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 ...

leader

Grant Notley Walter Grant Notley (January 19, 1939 – October 19, 1984) was a Canadian politician. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1971 to 1984 and also served as leader of the Alberta NDP from 1968 to 1984. Early life No ...

to pick up the electoral district of the Progressive Conservative party who formed the official opposition at the time. Dowling ran for a second term in office a couple years later in the

1971 Alberta general election The 1971 Alberta general election was the seventeenth general election held in the Province of Alberta, Canada on August 30, 1971, to elect seventy-five members of the Alberta Legislature The Alberta Legislature is the unicameral legislatur ...

, which saw the Progressive Conservatives come to power. He substantially increased his majority and was easily re-elected defeating two other candidates. After the election, new Premier Peter Lougheed appointed Dowling to his first cabinet as a Minister without portfolio responsible for Tourism. He was shuffled to another portfolio in the middle of his term and became the Minister of Consumer Affairs. Dowling ran for a third term in the

1975 Alberta general election The 1975 Alberta general election was held on March 26, 1975, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta to the 18th Alberta Legislature. The election was called on February 14, 1975 prorogued and dissolved of the 17th Alberta Leg ...

, his first time standing for re-election with ministerial advantage. His popular vote dropped slightly, but he was re-elected easily as the opposition vote collapsed. After the election he was shuffled to a similar cabinet post as the first one he served. He became the Minister of Business Development and Tourism. He held that portfolio until he retired from provincial politics at dissolution of the assembly in 1979. In 2000 Dowling was awarded the

Alberta Centennial Medal The Alberta Centennial Medal is a commemorative medal celebrating Alberta's first 100 years as a province of Canada. History In 2005, the ''Alberta Centennial Medal Act'' established the Alberta Centennial Medal. Purpose The ''Alberta Centenni ...

. Dowling died in March 2019 at the age of 94.Robert DOWLING obituary
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References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowling, Robert 1924 births 2019 deaths Members of the Executive Council of Alberta People from Camrose, Alberta Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta