Elsie Wayne

From Free net encyclopedia

---

Current revision

Image:Elsiewayne.jpg Elsie Eleanore Wayne (née Fairweather) (born April 20, 1932 in Shediac, New Brunswick) is a Canadian politician. She announced her retirement from politics on February 16, 2004 and did not run for re-election in the 2004 election to the Canadian House of Commons.

In 1977, she was elected to the Saint John municipal council. In 1983, she became the first female mayor of Saint John, and became extremely popular in that city. In the 1993 election, she was only one of two Progressive Conservative Party candidates elected to Parliament, along with Jean Charest, in one of the worst election defeats of a political party in Canadian history.

As a Member of Parliament, she represented the riding of Saint John, New Brunswick. In 1998, when Jean Charest resigned the leadership of the PC party to become leader of the Parti libéral du Québec, Wayne was appointed the party's interim leader, a post she held until Joe Clark was elected party leader later that year.

She supported the merger of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (led by Peter MacKay) and the Canadian Alliance (led by Stephen Harper) in 2003.

Politically, she was known as being socially conservative, opposing same-sex marriage, abortion and decriminalization of marijuana. Wayne proved to be controversial in frank comments such as: "If they (same-sex couples) are going to live together, they can go live together and shut up about it. There is no need of this foolishness."

Fiscally, Wayne has been a strong believer in Canada's social safety net and the welfare state. She is also among Canada's most vocal monarchists.

She is married to Richard Wayne and has two sons, Daniel and Stephen.

External links

• Canadian Politics: Riding by Riding - Saint John
• Wayne leaving federal politics
• Conservative Party of Canada Official Website - Elsie Wayne Profile
• Federal Political Biography from the Library of Parliament

Template:Start box Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:End boxfr:Elsie Wayne