Brent Taylor (politician)

Brent Taylor (born December 4, 1959^[1]) is an educator, columnist and politician in New Brunswick, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick from 1991 to 1995 and was the Progressive Conservative Party's candidate for the Southwest Miramichi riding, which he previously represented, in the 2006 election when he was unsuccessful in being re-elected.

Biography

He was born in Lachine, Quebec,^[2] the son of Eldon Taylor and Helen Dickson, and briefly attended the University of New Brunswick. In 1981, he married Janice Helen Price.^[1]

Taylor first became involved in electoral politics in the early 1990s with the formation of the Confederation of Regions Party of New Brunswick. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick in the 1991 provincial election to represent the riding of Southwest Miramichi.

Taylor was an ally of CoR leader Arch Pafford and was considered on the right of the already generally conservative CoR Party. Pafford did not win a seat in the legislature and as a result resigned the leadership in favour of Danny Cameron who became interim leader. Pafford then unsuccessfully tried to rescind his resignation, but a leadership convention was organized at which Taylor ran as the pro-Pafford candidate and won. His term as leader was brief however as Cameron's supporters on the party executive declared Taylor's victory void and Cameron returned to the leadership.

Though CoR formed the official opposition in the legislature at the time, Taylor was never leader of the opposition, because the House did not sit during his brief tenure. He did however serve as chair of the Public Accounts Committee from 1991 to 1994.^[3]

Taylor's relationship with Cameron remained cold and he and caucus colleague Beverly Brine were expelled from the caucus in 1994. Taylor served out the remainder of his term as an independent and did not seek re-election in 1995.

Following his retirement from politics, Taylor wrote newspaper columns for the Miramichi Leader and the Fredericton Daily Gleaner and taught computer-related courses at the Atlantic Business College.

In 2003, he was appointed to serve on the Commission on Legislative Democracy appointed by Progressive Conservative Premier Bernard Lord to examine means to modernize and improve democracy in New Brunswick. The commission, among other things, recommended fixed election dates and a form of mixed member proportional representation. ^

On August 3, 2006, the Daily Gleaner reported that Taylor would seek the Progressive Conservative nomination in the riding of Southwest Miramichi for the next provincial election. CoR which was formed in large part by conservatives opposed to the policy of official bilingualism which was supported by the Progressive Conservatives and Taylor had been one of the policy's most vocal critics. However, Taylor said he mad moderated his views, stating that he had always supported bilingual services he just did not think that they needed to be enshrined in law but that "I thought that a good government would provide the service anyway. I came to a different conclusion because we can't always guarantee we will have good government."^[4]

Despite being billed as a star candidate and receiving a lot of positive media attention, Taylor was unsuccessful in his bid to defeat Liberal incumbent Rick Brewer.

In 2007, he was named to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board.^[2]

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