Bill Graham Biography

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William C. (Bill) Graham, PC, QC, LL.D, D.U., B.A.(Hon.), MP (born March 17, 1939, in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian politician. In 2006, he was Canada's Leader of the Opposition as well as the interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada between the resignation of Paul Martin and the election of Stephane Dion as his successor. Graham was variously Minister of National Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs prior to the election of a Conservative government.

Several days following the defeat of the Martin Liberal government in the 2006 federal election, Graham was appointed parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition. On March 18, 2006, following the party executive's acceptance of Martin's resignation as leader, Graham was officially appointed interim leader of the Liberal Party.[2] Graham held the position until the Liberal leadership convention chose Stéphane Dion as Martin's permanent successor on December 2, 2006.

Personal life

Graham grew up in Montreal and Vancouver. He attended Upper Canada College, The University of Trinity College at the University of Toronto, and the University of Paris where he received his Doctorate in Law. While attending Trinity College, he served as XCVI, the 96th scribe of the Venerable Father Episkopon. After some time in private practice, he became a professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto, teaching subjects such as International Trade Law. He has been a visiting lecturer at the Université de Montréal and McGill University.

Graham is married and has two children and three grandchildren. His son is freelance reporter Patrick Graham.

He speaks English and French.

Political life

Before being elected to the House, he served as moderator of the 1990 leadership convention debates between Martin and Chretien, a position Martin himself held in the 1984 Chretien-Turner debates.

He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons as MP for the riding of Rosedale (now Toronto Centre) in the 1993 federal elections. He had previously run in the same riding in the 1984 and 1988 federal elections, in 1988 coming within 80 votes of victory (it was the eighth closest result in the country). He was re-elected in the same riding in the 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2006 elections. Toronto Centre is one of the most diverse ridings in Canada, including wealthy neighbourhoods such as Rosedale and Cabbagetown and public housing developments (Moss Park and Regent Park). Church and Wellesley, known in Toronto as the "gay village", is also in this riding.

In Parliament, Graham became a member and then the chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. He was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in a cabinet shuffle by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in January 2002.

In December 2003, the new Prime Minister, Paul Martin, advised the Governor General to appoint Graham to the same position in Cabinet. Graham was a vigorous defender of Canada's NATO mission in Afganastan.

In the cabinet shuffle that followed the 2004 election, Graham was moved to the Defence portfolio. He later made controversial remarks about Canada paying the price if it did not join the missile defense program with the United States. He is an honorary member of the Royal Military College of Canada student # S147.

In 2006, he was interim parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons when Martin announced his decision to resign following the January federal election. Martin, however, initially announced he would remain leader of the Liberal Party until the convention [3] but subsequently moved up the date of his resignation to March 19, 2006, at which point Graham became the party's fully fledged interim leader.

Graham appointed former cabinet colleague Jane Stewart to serve as his chief of staff.[4] Only weeks later, Stewart stepped down from the post due to family obligations. She was replaced by former cabinet minister Andy Mitchell.

Honours

The University of Toronto Faculty of Law has established the William C. Graham Chair in International Law and Development.

Graham has the prenomial "The Honourable" and the postnomial "PC" for life by virture of being a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada since 2002.

For his work in promoting French language and culture in Ontario (he is a past president of the Alliance française of Toronto) he has received:

• Prix Jean-Baptiste Rousseaux
  
• Médaille d'argent de la ville de Paris (City of Paris Silver Medal)
  
• Gold Medal of the Alliance française
  
• Ordre du mérite de l'Association des juristes d'expression française de l'Ontario (Order of Merit of the Association of French-speaking Jurists of Ontario)
  
• Chevalier of the Legion of Honour
  
• Chevalier of the Ordre de la Pléiade
  

External links

• Political Biography from the Library of Parliament
  

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