David Eggen

The Honourable David Eggen MLA
David Eggen in May 2015
Minister of Education of Alberta
Incumbent
Assumed office May 24, 2015
Preceded by	Gordon Dirks
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Edmonton-Calder
Incumbent
Assumed office April 23, 2012
Preceded by	Doug Elniski
In office November 22, 2004 – March 3, 2008
Preceded by	Brent Rathgeber
Succeeded by	Doug Elniski
Personal details
Born	1962 (age 55–56)
Political party	New Democrat
Spouse(s)	Somboon Eggen[1]
Alma mater	University of Alberta
Occupation	teacher
Portfolio	Minister of Education, Minister of Culture

David Manson Eggen (born 1962) is a Canadian politician. He is a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, in 2015 he was elected for the third time as the member representing Edmonton-Calder. In 2014, Eggen ran in the NDP leadership election.^[2] He is currently the Minister of Education in Premier Notley's NDP government.^[3]

Educator

Born in 1962,^[4] Eggen was educated at the University of Alberta where he received a Bachelor of Education degree in 1984. Eggen then went to Zimbabwe, where he taught for three years. At this point, he returned to Edmonton, where he taught at local schools from 1990 to 2004. He also coached a wide variety of sports for high school and community teams. In 1996 and 1997, he also served as an education consultant to the Wat Dhammamongkol Temple in Bangkok, Thailand. He volunteered as an animator at Fort Edmonton Park. He is a provincial trustee with the Forum for Young Albertans. He is also a member of the Diversity, Equity and Human Rights committee for the Alberta Teachers’ Association and an amateur musician. He lives in Edmonton with his wife and their two daughters.

Political career

Eggen was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta as a New Democrat in the 2004 Alberta general election, narrowly defeating incumbent Progressive Conservative Brent Rathgeber. He was the first NDP representative elected in Edmonton-Calder since 1993, increasing his party's share of the vote from 18% to 36%. His victory was widely attributed to a two-year canvassing campaign in the run-up to the election. He served as the NDP's critic for Agriculture and Food, Environment, K-12 Education, Sustainable Resource Development, and Tourism and Culture.

He was defeated in the 2008 election by Progressive Conservative Doug Elniski. After this defeat Eggen assumed the Alberta executive director's position for Friends of Medicare, an advocacy group that supports public healthcare.^[5] Eggen regained his seat in the 2012 provincial election and retained it with a greatly increased margin in the 2015 election.

Electoral history

Cabinet

David Eggen was sworn into Cabinet on May 24, 2015 as part of the NDP government led by Rachel Notley. There had been speculation since the election that Eggen would receive a large portfolio in Cabinet. He was appointed as Minister of Education and Minister of Culture and Tourism.

In fall 2015, Eggen introduced Bill 8, a proposal to reform the collective bargaining structure for public school teachers in Alberta. Bill 8 proposes to introduce a two-table bargaining system, similar to the structure in Ontario, where the provincial government would handle big items like salary and local boards would negotiate local issues. The existing system sees all issues bargained locally.

There was criticism that school boards were not adequately consulted, but documents provided by Eggen's office to the media detailed consultations that had taken place in September and October 2015.^[9]

References