This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2009) (Find sources: Ted Morton – news, books, scholar)

Ted Morton
MLA for Foothills-Rocky View
Incumbent
Assumed office  2004
Preceded by	New District
Minister of Sustainable Resource Development in the Alberta government
Incumbent
Assumed office  December 15, 2006
Preceded by	David Coutts
Political party	Progressive Conservative
Spouse(s)	Patricia
Residence	Calgary, Alberta
Alma mater	Colorado College University of Toronto
Website	http://www.tedmorton.ca/

Frederick Lee (Ted) Morton (born March 28, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, United States) is a Canadian politician and current Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta representing the constituency of Foothills-Rocky View as a Progressive Conservative.

[edit] Early life

In 1952, Morton moved with his parents to Casper, Wyoming, where his father, Warren A. Morton (1924-2002), worked in the oil and natural gas exploration business and was the Republican Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1979-1980 and his party's gubernatorial nominee in 1982. Morton's mother, Katharine Allen Morton (born 1926), was the daughter of former U.S. Representative Robert G. Allen, a Democrat from western Pennsylvania. Morton moved to Canada in 1981. In 1991, Morton and his wife, Patricia, became Canadian citizens.

[edit] Academic career

Morton obtained his B.A. from Colorado College and earned his Masters and Ph.D. in political economy from the University of Toronto. During his time in college, Morton was involved in protests against the Vietnam War. In 1981, Morton joined the faculty of the University of Calgary as a political science professor. He is currently on an extended leave of absence so that he can carry out political duties.

Morton is part of a group of academics called the Calgary School whose teaching and writing exercised a very significant influence on the future of conservatism in Canada.

He has published five books, one of which won the 1992 Alberta Writers' Guild award, and more than fifty scholarly articles. His columns have appeared in the National Post, the Calgary Herald, the Globe and Mail and the Calgary Sun.

[edit] Political career

Morton was an early supporter of the Triple-E Senate Committee and a public critic of the Meech Lake (1987) and Charlottetown (1992) Accords.

He was elected as a Reform Party Senator-in-Waiting in the 1998 Alberta Senate nominee election.

In 2001, Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day appointed him Parliamentary Director of Policy and Research for the party. That same year, he was one of a group of six Albertans (including Stephen Harper—later to become Prime Minister in 2006) who authored the "Alberta Agenda," also known as the "firewall letter," a manifesto that calls on the government of Alberta to use all of its constitutional powers to reduce the influence of the Federal government on the lives and personal finances of Albertans.

In the 2004 Alberta general election, Morton won the newly created seat of Foothills-Rocky View and now sits as an MLA for the Progressive Conservatives. In that role, he has advocated for tax cuts, against same-sex marriage, for increased saving of energy revenues, for a lobbyist registry, and for fixed election dates. A primary facet of his environmental policy was the revocation of Métis hunting rights.^[1]

He was the only Progressive Conservative MLA to publicly oppose the Prosperity Bonus. Within six months of his election, the Calgary Herald gave Morton the highest grade of all new Calgary-area MLAs and rated him "most likely to succeed."

On December 15 2006 he was named Minister of Sustainable Resource Development.

[edit] Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership campaign

As a candidate in the 2006 Progressive Conservative leadership race Morton placed second to front runner Jim Dinning on the first ballot. The second ballot took place Saturday, 2 December, 2006. In the leadership campaign Morton's primary policies include:

• Maintaining publicly funded health care, while allowing private health care for non-emergency procedures.
• Providing fixed election dates, and maximum term lengths for the office of Premier.
• The creation of a lobbyist registry and strengthening of the office of auditor general.
• Promoting a bill that would ensure no Alberta laws penalized someone expressing disagreement with same-sex marriage, allow provincially appointed marriage commissioners to refuse to marry same-sex couples, and place restrictions on the teaching of marriage as including same-sex couples.
• Advocating "more Alberta, less Ottawa," including starting an Alberta pension plan, replacing the RCMP in Alberta with a provincial police force, and exercising greater provincial influence in the area of immigration.
• Ensuring that Alberta has greater control over its non-renewable energy resources.

[edit] Criticisms

Several figures have publicly expressed worry that Morton's private member Bill 208 (2006) would have the effect of protecting, in statute, public discrimination against gays and lesbians.^[2]

Morton has been criticized by his constituents on the issue of logging in the beloved Kananaskis region. Under his watch, critics argue that part of Kananaskis Country, including part of the Trans Canada Trail, has been logged. Morton argues that the logging was done to prevent pine beetles, but many experts in the area^[who?] disagree.^[3][4]

[edit] Personal life

Morton and his wife, Patricia, have three children. In his spare time he enjoys hunting, fishing, gardening, cooking, and skiing.^[5]

[edit] Election results

[edit] External links

• Ted Morton's web page

[edit] References