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Brian Tobin
Brian Vincent Tobin (born October 21, 1954) is a Canadian businessman and former politician. Tobin served as the sixth premier of Newfoundland from 1996 to 2000. Tobin was also a prominent Member of Parliament and served as a cabinet minister in Jean Chrétien's Liberal government.
Tobin was born in Stephenville, Newfoundland. He studied political science at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's. He worked a brief stint as a TV news announcer with NBC (now NTV) before joining the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador as a political aide to former federal Member of Parliament (MP) and federal cabinet minister Don Jamieson.
Tobin is married to Jodean (Smith) and they have three children: Heather, Adam, and Jack.
Tobin was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada as a Liberal in the 1980 election. He was re-elected in the 1984 election even though Brian Mulroney's, Progressive Conservative Party (PC) won the largest majority government in Canadian history. It was at this time however that Tobin gained prominence as a member of the "Rat Pack", which was the nickname given to a group of young, high-profile Canadian Liberal opposition MPs during Mulroney's government.
Following the 1993 election in which the Liberals regained power from the Progressive Conservatives after almost a decade in opposition, Tobin was appointed Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.
In the ministry, Tobin distinguished himself from his colleagues with speeches rife with rhetoric and his youthful exuberance. Throughout 1994 he mounted a fierce campaign against foreign over-fishing of waters on the nose and tail of the Grand Banks, located just outside Canada's declared 200 nautical mile (370 km) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). People across Canada took notice of this new and aggressive posture, a position that had not been taken by a federal minister—Liberal or Conservative—since the EEZ was declared in 1977.
Critics[who?] note that Tobin was likely doing this to preserve his political life in his home province.[citation needed] At this point, Newfoundland and Labrador was wracked[clarification needed] by rapidly rising unemployment and social unrest over the fiscal situation which many believed had been caused by federal mismanagement of foreign and domestic overfishing. This had resulted in the 1992 "Northern Cod Moratorium." In April 1995, Tobin's department was embroiled in the Turbot War (known in Spain as Guerra del Fletán). He received full backing of the United Kingdom and Ireland in the pursuit. Later that month, Tobin conducted an international news conference from a barge on the East River outside the United Nations headquarters and dramatically displayed an illegal, under Canadian Law, trawl net that had allegedly been cut from a Spanish trawler which was arrested outside the Canadian EEZ, on international waters. The net was over 16 stories high and was hung from a crane causing a media sensation. Tobin was accused by the arrested shipmen of ill-intentionally orchestrating a media-oriented frame-up to mislead attention from economic and public image problems Canada was facing.
Tobin helped organize a pro-Canada rally in Montreal before the October 1995 Quebec referendum—busing in thousands of university students and other residents from English Canada. For his roles as Fisheries Minister and in the referendum, he earned the nickname "Captain Canada".
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Brian Tobin
Brian Vincent Tobin (born October 21, 1954) is a Canadian businessman and former politician. Tobin served as the sixth premier of Newfoundland from 1996 to 2000. Tobin was also a prominent Member of Parliament and served as a cabinet minister in Jean Chrétien's Liberal government.
Tobin was born in Stephenville, Newfoundland. He studied political science at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's. He worked a brief stint as a TV news announcer with NBC (now NTV) before joining the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador as a political aide to former federal Member of Parliament (MP) and federal cabinet minister Don Jamieson.
Tobin is married to Jodean (Smith) and they have three children: Heather, Adam, and Jack.
Tobin was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada as a Liberal in the 1980 election. He was re-elected in the 1984 election even though Brian Mulroney's, Progressive Conservative Party (PC) won the largest majority government in Canadian history. It was at this time however that Tobin gained prominence as a member of the "Rat Pack", which was the nickname given to a group of young, high-profile Canadian Liberal opposition MPs during Mulroney's government.
Following the 1993 election in which the Liberals regained power from the Progressive Conservatives after almost a decade in opposition, Tobin was appointed Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.
In the ministry, Tobin distinguished himself from his colleagues with speeches rife with rhetoric and his youthful exuberance. Throughout 1994 he mounted a fierce campaign against foreign over-fishing of waters on the nose and tail of the Grand Banks, located just outside Canada's declared 200 nautical mile (370 km) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). People across Canada took notice of this new and aggressive posture, a position that had not been taken by a federal minister—Liberal or Conservative—since the EEZ was declared in 1977.
Critics[who?] note that Tobin was likely doing this to preserve his political life in his home province.[citation needed] At this point, Newfoundland and Labrador was wracked[clarification needed] by rapidly rising unemployment and social unrest over the fiscal situation which many believed had been caused by federal mismanagement of foreign and domestic overfishing. This had resulted in the 1992 "Northern Cod Moratorium." In April 1995, Tobin's department was embroiled in the Turbot War (known in Spain as Guerra del Fletán). He received full backing of the United Kingdom and Ireland in the pursuit. Later that month, Tobin conducted an international news conference from a barge on the East River outside the United Nations headquarters and dramatically displayed an illegal, under Canadian Law, trawl net that had allegedly been cut from a Spanish trawler which was arrested outside the Canadian EEZ, on international waters. The net was over 16 stories high and was hung from a crane causing a media sensation. Tobin was accused by the arrested shipmen of ill-intentionally orchestrating a media-oriented frame-up to mislead attention from economic and public image problems Canada was facing.
Tobin helped organize a pro-Canada rally in Montreal before the October 1995 Quebec referendum—busing in thousands of university students and other residents from English Canada. For his roles as Fisheries Minister and in the referendum, he earned the nickname "Captain Canada".