Peter Lougheed

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

The Honourable Peter Lougheed, PC, CC, QC, MBA, LL.D., (born July 26, 1928) is a Canadian lawyer, politician and Canadian Football League player. He served as premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985.

He had played football for the Edmonton Eskimos. In 1965, he was elected leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party. In 1971, this party won the election, getting 49 of the 75 seats and thus defeating the Social Credit Party for the first time since 1935, establishing a Tory dynasty in the province that has continued uninterrupted since then, up to the re-election of the PCs in the 2004 election. As Premier, he furthered the exploitation of the oil and gas resources and started the Alberta Heritage Fund. He also introduced the Alberta Bill of Rights. Lougheed quarrelled with Pierre Trudeau's federal Liberal government over their introduction of the National Energy Program.

In 1986 he was named a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Peter Lougheed is the grandson of Sir James Alexander Lougheed.