Linda Francis Duncan (born June 25, 1949) is a Canadian lawyer and politician, currently serving as a Member of Parliament for the riding of Edmonton—Strathcona in Alberta. She is a member of the New Democratic Party and, since 2008, she has been the only MP from an Alberta riding not a member of the Conservative Party. Since her election to 40th Parliament in October 2008, she has served as a member of the House Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, as well as the NDP caucus' Environment Critic. Prior to her election, she ran unsuccessfully in the same riding in 2006.

Duncan has spent most of her life in Edmonton. She graduated the University of Alberta's undergraduate and law programs and founded Edmonton's Environmental Law Centre. She practiced law, specializing in environmental law, in the city until 1987 when she moved to Ottawa to work for Environment Canada. She spent time in Whitehorse working as an assistant deputy in the Yukon government, then Montreal working in NAFTA's Commission for Environmental Cooperation. She attained a Masters of Law at Dalhousie Law School and spent several years on the Sierra Legal Defence Fund's Board of Directors.

First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognized First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The total population is nearly 700,000 people. Under the Employment Equity Act, First Nations are a "designated group", along with women, visible minorities, and persons with physical or mental disabilities. They are not defined as a visible minority under the Act or by the criteria of Statistics Canada.

The term First Nations (most often used in the plural) has come into general use for the indigenous peoples of the Americas located in what is now Canada, except for the Arctic-situated Inuit, and peoples of mixed European-First Nations ancestry called Métis. The singular, commonly used on culturally politicized reserves, is the term First Nations person (when gender-specific, First Nations man or First Nations woman). A more recent trend is for members of various nations to refer to themselves by their tribal or national identity only, e.g., "I'm Haida," or "We're Kwantlens," in recognition of the distinctiveness of First Nations ethnicities.

Ronalee "Rona" Ambrose, PC, MP (born March 15, 1969) is a Canadian politician and a Member of Parliament since 2004. She serves as the Minister of Public Works and Government Services for Canada, Vice-Chair of the Treasury Board Cabinet committee, Minister of State for Status of Women Canada and Minister of Western Economic Diversification.

In the previous Parliament, she was Canada's Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Minister of Western Economic Diversification and President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. She has been a Conservative member of the Canadian House of Commons from Edmonton–Spruce Grove since 2004. She is a former communication consultant and public policy consultant for the Alberta government. When the Conservative party was in opposition, she served as its Intergovermental Affairs critic.

Ambrose was born in Valleyview, Alberta and grew up both in Brazil and in Parkland County, Alberta. In addition to English, she also speaks fluent Portuguese (Brazil's official language), Spanish, and French. Ambrose has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Victoria and a Master of Arts degree in political science from the University of Alberta.

Edgar Peter Lougheed, PC, CC, AOE, QC, ( /ˈlɔːhiːd/ LAW-heed; born July 26, 1928) is a Canadian lawyer, and a former politician and Canadian Football League player. He served as the tenth Premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985, and is widely considered one of the greatest premiers in Canadian history.

Lougheed is the grandson of Sir James Alexander Lougheed. In 1950, he received a BA degree, and in 1952, he received a LL.B degree, both from the University of Alberta. While in Edmonton as a student, he played football for the Edmonton Eskimos (for two seasons, 1949 and 1950) and served as President of the Students' Union and of the Alberta Chapter of Delta Upsilon. In 1954, he received a MBA degree from Harvard University.

In 1965, he was elected leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party. The party won the 1971 provincial election, with 49 of the 75 seats in the legislature, defeating the Social Credit Party which had governed the province since the 1935 election. Lougheed established a Tory dynasty in the province that has continued uninterrupted since then. Lougheed led his party to victory in the 1975, 1979 and 1982 provincial elections.

Gerry Ritz, PC, MP (born August 19, 1951) is Canada's Agriculture minister and a Canadian Member of Parliament for Battlefords—Lloydminster, a largely rural riding in Saskatchewan. Born in Delisle, Saskatchewan, he was elected as the Reform Party candidate in the 1997 general election, and then re-elected with the Canadian Alliance in the 2000 election and the Conservative Party of Canada in the 2004 election. Ritz has been the vice-chair of the House of Commons Agriculture Committee since 2002. He was appointed Secretary of State for small business and tourism in the Harper government on January 4, 2007. On August 14, 2007, Ritz was promoted to the Cabinet as Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food replacing Chuck Strahl.

Prior to his political career, Ritz worked as a farmer at the family farm for over 20 years and owned a contracting business company.

Since before he was appointed as Agriculture Minister, Ritz has campaigned to allow farmers to sell their barley in the open market, rather than exclusively through the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). Many farmers who want to seek the highest possible price oppose the monopoly of the board, while others believe that eliminating the board would ultimately have the effect of driving crop prices downward because of increased competition between individual farmers and by competition between marketing companies as was proven by the loss of the Australian Wheat Board in Australia in 2009-2010.^{[citation needed]} The previous Agriculture Minister, Chuck Strahl, had also proposed ending the monopoly.