Stephen Owen

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For the Australian Rules Football player, see Stephen Owen (footballer).

Stephen Owen

Member of Parliament for Vancouver Quadra
In office 2000 federal election – July 27, 2007
Preceded by	Ted McWhinney

Born	September 8, 1948 (1948-09-08) (age 59) Vancouver, British Columbia
Political party	Liberal
Residence	Vancouver, British Columbia
Profession	Lawyer, Professor

Stephen Owen, (born September 8, 1948) is the Vice-President (VP) External and Legal for the University of British Columbia. He is a former Canadian politician.

Owen was the Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Vancouver Quadra, encompassing the western end of the City of Vancouver. He was a member of Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberal government, serving in cabinet as Canada's tenth Minister of Western Economic Diversification and as Minister of State for Sport.

[edit] Early career

During the 1980s, Owen worked for the government of British Columbia as a non-partisan official. He served as that province's ombudsman from 1986 to 1992, and as Commissioner for the ground-breaking Commission on Resources and Environment, which pioneered the province's multi-stakeholder land use planning approach from 1992 to 1995. Subsequently Owen was the Deputy Attorney General for B.C. and, then, the David Lam Professor of Law & Public Policy, and Director, Institute for Dispute Resolution, University of Victoria (1997-2000) He is also the past commissioner and vice-president of the Law Commission of Canada. His cousin, Philip Owen, is a former mayor of Vancouver.

[edit] Federal politics

Owen was first elected to the House of Commons in the 2000 federal election. He was appointed to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's cabinet on January 15, 2002, serving as Secretary of State for both Western Economic Diversification and Indian Affairs and Northern Development. On December 12, 2003, he was promoted by newly-appointed Martin to Minister of Public Works and Government Services. In this capacity, he was a frequent target of opposition questions on the "sponsorship scandal". During his tenure, Owen also managed the largest recovery of misappropriated public funds in Canadian history.^{[verification needed]} Hewlett Packard paid $146 million to the government of Canada, and both parties continue to jointly pursue companies who may also have been involved.

Owen defeated former provincial cabinet minister Stephen Rogers in the federal election of 2004, winning by a much greater margin than most observers anticipated. He was named Minister of Western Economic Diversification and Minister of State for Sport on July 20, 2004. Under normal circumstances, this would have been considered a demotion, but the shuffle placed Owen in a powerful managerial position for preparation for the upcoming Olympic Games in British Columbia.

During the federal election of 2006, held to elect the 39th Parliament, Owen managed to again defeat Rogers and maintain his seat in Vancouver Quadra.

Following the election, Owen was one of the early supporters of Michael Ignatieff for the Liberal Party Leadership, and is credited with moving other prominent British Columbians to support Ignatieff, such as Philip Owen, the former Mayor of Vancouver. On July 5 he announced that he would be resigning his seat as of July 27, 2007, to accept a position at the University of British Columbia

Cabinet Posts (3)
27th Ministry - Government of Paul Martin
Predecessor	Office	Successor
Rey Pagtakhan	Minister of Western Economic Diversification (2004–2006)	Carol Skelton
Stan Keyes	Minister of State (Sport) (2004–2006)
Ralph Goodale	Minister of Public Works and Government Services (2003–2004)	Scott Brison
26th Ministry - Government of Jean Chrétien
Sub-Cabinet Post
Predecessor	Title	Successor
	Secretary of State (Western Economic Diversification) (Indian Affairs and Northern Development) (2002–2003)