Jim Dinning

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Jim Dinning bigraphy, stories - Canadian politician

Jim Dinning : biography

December 4, 1952 –

James Francis Dinning

Political history

After graduating at Western Canada High School in 1970 , Dinning went on to obtain his Bachelor of Commerce honours degree from Queen’s University in 1974. He also earned a Masters degree in Public Administration from Queen’s in 1977.

Elected in the riding of Calgary Shaw in 1986, Dinning held the riding until 1993. During this time he served in a variety of positions within the provincial government. He was the Minister of Community and Occupational Health from 1986 to 1988, the Minister of Education from 1988 to 1992, and he served as the Provincial Treasurer from 1992 to 1997.

In 2006, Dinning ran for leadership of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta party. Dinning ultimately lost the party election to Ed Stelmach as a result of a second ballot vote on December 2, 2006. During much of the campaign, he held at least a 20-point lead over his closest competitor and over a 40-point lead on Stelmach.

Today he serves as a corporate director, advisor and consultant to various companies, not-for-profits and governments.

Electoral record

1986

Calgary—Shaw

  • Jim Dinning (PC) 6,694 61.5%
  • Brendan Dunphy (Lib) 2,727 25.1%
  • Len Curie (NDP) 1,166 10.7%
  • Byron L. Chenger (Rep) 295 2.7%

1989

Calgary—Shaw

  • Jim Dinning (PC) 7,412 52.9% (-8.6%)
  • Bob Crump (Lib) 4,865 34.7% (+9.7%)
  • Gordon M. Christie (NDP) 1,728 12.3% (+1.6%)

1993

Calgary—Lougheed (compared to Calgary—Shaw, which covered much of the same area in southwest Calgary)

  • Jim Dinning (PC) 7,280 52.8% (-0.2%)
  • Jack Driscoll (Lib) 5,803 42.1% (+7.3%)
  • Catherine Rose (NDP) 502 3.6% (-8.7%)
  • Peter Hope (CoR) 122 0.9% (-)
  • Ida Bugmann (NLP) 88 0.6% (-)

Career history

Dinning currently serves on the board of directors of four companies that are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. They are: Liquor Stores NA Ltd where he serves as Chair of the Board, Parkland Fuel Corp., Russel Metals Inc., and Oncolytics Biotech Inc.. Dinning also serves as chairman of the board of the Western Financial Group and Export Development Canada. He is the Chair of the Board of Canada West Foundation and he’s Chancellor of University of Calgary.

Dinning was the chair of the Calgary Health Region from 1999 to 2001. He was a Governor of the Banff Centre, and served as a director of Finning International, Shaw Communications Inc., the Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN), and the Alberta Energy Research Institute. Dinning has also served as chairman of the Canadian Clean Power Coalition, which comprised major power producers such as ATCO, Epcor, TransAlta, Luscar, SaskPower, and Nova Scotia Power.

The University of Calgary honoured Dinning in 2002 with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. In 2011, he joined former Alberta Premier Ralph Klein when together they were honoured by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation with their Tax Fighter Award. http://taxpayer.com/federal/taxpayers-federation-honour-ralph-klein-and-jim-dinning-taxfighter-award