Gail Shea, PC, MP (born April 6, 1959) is a Canadian politician, currently the Member of Parliament for Egmont. She was previously a member of the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island from 2000 to 2007, representing the electoral district of Tignish-DeBlois as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.

As of May 18, 2011, Shea serves as the Minister of National Revenue

Provincial politics[link]

Minister of Community and Cultural Affairs[link]

Shea served as Minister of Community and Cultural Affairs from 2000 to 2003, under the second administration of Premier Pat Binns. During this period Shea 's responsibilities included the Status of Women in the province, as well as providing oversight on the Workers Compensation Board and the Island Waste Management Corporation.^[1]

Minister of Transportation and Public Works[link]

From 2003 to 2007 Shea served as Minister of Transportation and Public Works. In this position, Shea oversaw the implementation of a graduated licencing system in her home province.^[2]

Canadian federal politics[link]

Shea stood as the Conservative Party of Canada candidate in the riding of Egmont for the 2008 federal election.^[3] On October 14, 2008, she became the first candidate to be elected MP from Prince Edward Island who wasn't a Liberal, in 24 years. On October 30, 2008, Shea was appointed the federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. She is only the third female MP from Prince Edward Island, following Margaret Mary Macdonald and Catherine Callbeck. In the May 2, 2011 general election Shea was re-elected to represent the people of Egmont with a margin of 4500 votes. On May 18, 2011 she was appointed Minister of National Revenue and is the only female cabinet minister east of Ontario.

Pie incident[link]

On January 25, 2010, Shea was pied while giving a speech at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters. An American PETA activist, Emily McCoy, was later arrested in Burlington, charged with assault in connection with the incident. PETA has taken public responsibility for the incident, saying that it was part of a broader campaign against the Canadian Government's support of the seal hunt.^[4]

In response to the pieing of the Fisheries Minister, a long time Liberal MP Gerry Byrne denounced the attack on the minister as an act of terrorism.^[5] He commented on the 26th, “When someone actually coaches or conducts criminal behaviour to impose a political agenda on each and every other citizen of Canada, that does seem to me to meet the test of a terrorist organization.” Byrne continued to say, “I am calling on the Government of Canada to actually investigate whether or not this organization, PETA, is acting as a terrorist organization under the test that exists under Canadian law.” In response to his interpretation of Canadian law, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said Byrnes reaction was "a silly, chest-beating exercise."^[6]

When commenting on the event later, Shea's opinion of the seal hunt did not appear affected. "I can tell you that this incident actually strengthens my resolve to support the seal hunt," she remarked. "If this is what it takes to stand up for Canadian sealing families and this industry I'm certainly very proud to do it."^[7]

References[link]

Wikinews has related news: Canadian annual seal hunt begins amid controversy

External links[link]

• Gail Shea official site
• Profile at Parliament of Canada
• Parliamentarian profile at ParlInfo
• Speeches, votes and activity at OpenParliament.ca
• Voting history at How'd They Vote?

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v t e Ministers of Fisheries and Oceans Ministers of Marine and Fisheries (1867–1930)1 Mitchell Smith Pope McLelan Foster Tupper Costigan Davies Sutherland Préfontaine Laurier (acting) Brodeur Lemieux Hazen Ballantyne Lapointe Cardin Black (acting) Patenaude (acting) Cardin (acting) Ministers of Marine (1930–1936)2 Cardin Duranleau Gendron Howe Ministers of Fisheries (1930–1969) Macmillan Rhodes Duranleau (acting) Stirling (acting) Ernst Michaud Bertrand Bridges Bertrand (acting) Gregg MacKinnon Mayhew Sinclair MacLean Robichaud Davis Minister of Fisheries and Forestry (1969–1971) Davis Ministers of the Environment (1971–1976)3 Davis Sauvé LeBlanc (acting) Marchand LeBlanc (acting) Ministers of State (Fisheries) (1974–1976) LeBlanc Minister of Fisheries and the Environment (1976–1979) LeBlanc Ministers of Fisheries and Oceans (1979–) LeBlanc McGrath LeBlanc de Bané Breau Fraser Nielsen Siddon Valcourt Crosbie Reid Tobin Dingwall (acting) Mifflin Anderson Dhaliwal Thibault Regan Hearn Shea Ashfield 1The office of Minister of Marine and Fisheries was abolished and the offices of Minister of Fisheries and Minister of Marine were created in 1930 2The offices of Minister of Marine and Minister of Railways and Canals were abolished and the office of Minister of Transport was created in 1936 3From 1971 to 1976 the Minister of the Environment was also the Minister of Fisheries.

v t e Ministers of National Revenue Ministers of Customs and Inland Revenue(1918-1921) Sifton Reid (acting) Burrell Wigmore Ministers of Customs and Excise (1921-1927) Wigmore Baxter Bureau Boivin Stevens Euler Ministers of National Revenue (1927-present) Euler Ryckman Matthews Lawson Ilsley Gibson MacKinnon (acting) D. MacLaren MacKinnon (acting) McCann Nowlan Flemming Garland McIlraith Benson Chrétien Côté Gray Stanbury Basford Cullen Bégin Guay Abbott Baker Rompkey Bussières R. MacLaren Beatty MacKay Jelinek Turner Anderson Stewart Dhaliwal Cauchon Caplan Keyes McCallum Skelton O'Connor Blackburn Ashfield Shea

v t e   Current Members of the House of Commons of Canada Government v t e Conservative Party Harper Ablonczy Adams Adler Aglukkaq Albas Albrecht Alexander Allen Allison Ambler Ambrose Anders Anderson Armstrong Ashfield Aspin Baird Bateman Benoit Bernier Bezan Blaney Block Boughen Braid Breitkreuz G. Brown L. Brown P. Brown Bruinooge Butt Calandra Calkins Cannan Carmichael Carrie Chisu Chong Clarke Clement Daniel Davidson Dechert Del Mastro Devolin Dreeshen Duncan Dykstra Fantino Fast Findlay Finley Flaherty Fletcher Galipeau Gallant Gill Glover Goguen Goodyear Gosal Gourde Grewal Harris Hawn Hayes Hiebert Hillyer Hoback Hoeppner Holder James Jean Kamp Keddy Kenney Kent Kerr Komarnicki Kramp Lake Lauzon Lebel Leef Leitch Lemieux Leung Lizon Lobb Lukiwski Lunney McColeman MacKay MacKenzie McLeod Mayes Merrifield Menegakis Menzies Miller J. Moore R. Moore Nicholson Norlock Obhrai O'Connor Oda Oliver O'Neill-Gordon Opitz Paradis Payne Penashue Poilievre Preston Raitt Rajotte Rathgeber Reid Rempel Richards Rickford Ritz Saxton Scheer Schellenberger Seeback Shea Shipley Shory Smith Sopuck Sorenson Stanton Storseth Strahl Sweet Tilson Toet Toews Trost Trottier Truppe Tweed Uppal Valcourt Van Kesteren Van Loan Vellacott Wallace Warawa Warkentin Watson J. Weston R. Weston Wilks Williamson Wong Woodworth Yelich T. Young W. Young Zimmer Official Opposition v t e New Democratic Party Mulcair Allen Angus Ashton Atamanenko Ayala Aubin Benskin Bevington Blanchette Blanchette-Lamothe Boivin Borg Boulerice Boutin-Sweet Brahmi Brosseau Caron Cash Charlton Chicoine Chisholm Choquette Chow Christopherson Cleary Comartin Côté Crowder Cullen D. Davies L. Davies Day Dewar Dionne Labelle Donnelly Doré Lefebvre Dubé Duncan Dusseault Freeman Garrison Genest Genest-Jourdain Giguère Godin Gravelle Groguhé D. Harris J. Harris Hassainia Hughes Jacob Julian Kellway Larose Lapointe Latendresse Laverdière LeBlanc Leslie Liu Mai Marston Martin Masse Mathyssen Michaud Moore D. Morin I. Morin M-A. Morin M-C. Morin Nantel Nash Nicholls Nunez-Melo Papillon Patry Péclet Perreault Pilon Quach Rafferty Ravignat Raynault Rousseau Saganash Sandhu Savoie Scott Sellah Sims Sitsabaiesan Stewart Stoffer Sullivan Thibeault Toone Tremblay Turmel Third Party v t e Liberal Party Rae Andrews Bélanger Bennett Brison Byrne Casey Coderre Cotler Cuzner Dion Duncan Easter Eyking Foote Fry Garneau Goodale Hsu Karygiannis Lamoureux LeBlanc MacAulay McCallum McGuinty McKay Murray Pacetti Regan Scarpaleggia Sgro Simms St-Denis Trudeau Valeriote Independents v t e Bloc Québécois Plamondon Bellavance Fortin Mourani v t e Green Party May v t e Independent Goldring Hyer 41st Canadian Parliament Vacancies: 1