Shawn Graham

Shawn Graham (born February 22, 1968 in Kent County, New Brunswick, Canada) is a New Brunswick politician.

Graham, the son of Alan Graham who was the longest serving member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick from 1967-1998, was elected to replace his retiring father in a by-election in 1998. Following the New Brunswick general election of 1999, Graham's Liberal Party was reduced to 10 seats from 44. This gave the young politician the chance to quickly rise to prominence.

He was named the caucus chair of the party and became one of the most vocal and popular critics of the government of Bernard Lord.

Liberal leader Camille Theriault resigned in March of 2001 and a leadership convention was set from May of 2002. Few candidates emerged for this campaign and it appeared that former cabinet minister Paul Duffie would win virtually unopposed. Graham was urged to run and eventually entered the race with the support of Greg Byrne, a previous leadership contender, and many of the supporters of Bernard Richard, also a former leadership contender and the interim leader following the resignation of Theriault.

Surprising many pundits, Graham was successful in taking a solid lead during delegate selection meetings in February and March of 2002 and, as a result, Duffie dropped out of the race. This left only fringe candidate Jack MacDougall in the race who Graham defeated by a 3 to 1 margin at the May convention.

Graham was considered a lightweight by pundits and by the governing Progressive Conservative Party and few gave him a chance in the coming election. Though Graham's Liberal Party of New Brunswick and the PCs were near each other in the polls, Graham was a relative unknown and trailed Premier Bernard Lord by significant margins.

Graham surprised pundits again during the New Brunswick general election of 2003, running an energetic campaign and winning 26 of 55 seats. Despite his victories, the governing Tories and the media continued to view Graham as weak. Rumours suggested that Graham was being pressured to step aside in favour of either Mike Murphy, Kelly Lamrock or Andy Savoy.

Following a by-election victory by the Liberals on October 4, 2004, Graham took a more aggressive stance to dispell this believe. He named a new chief of staff and replaced a third of his staff on October 28, 2004 while pledging to defeat the government and force an election in the next session of the legislature. Graham's upward momentum continued when, in an opinion poll released on December 9, 2004, the Liberals expanded their lead over the Conservatives to 46% to 36% but also, for the first time since Graham became leader, he was the preferred choice of New Brunswickers for premier beating the incumbent Bernard Lord 34% to 27%. A further poll some months later showed that Graham continued to hold a lead over Lord but by a smaller margin.

In the spring session of the legislature, Graham attempted to pass a snap motion of no confidence on during his speech on the budget. There was brief excitement on Liberal benches as less than half of the government caucus was present for Graham's speech, however the speaker ruled that the vote would be held along with the main budget motion at the end of the following week. Graham received criticism as, when the vote was held, two of his members were absent. Graham defended their absence arguing that, as NDP leader Elizabeth Weir was also absent, it was impossible to defeat the government and he did not see the need to whip his members. A new poll conducted in the midst of the spring session and released June 7, 2005, showed that Graham has lost his lead over Lord though his Liberal Party still led albeit by a smaller margin. The Conservatives argued that this was another sign that Graham's leadership was in jeopardy, though some observers argued that the poll could be inaccurate in that it also surveyed the opinions of New Brunswickers on the federal Liberal position on same-sex marriages, a move largely unpopular in New Brunswick.

Preceded by: Bernard Richard 2001-2002 (interim)

Leader of the Liberal Party of New Brunswick 2002-

Succeeded by: in office