Hugh McFadyen
Hugh McFadyen
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Hugh McFadyen

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Hugh McFadyen

Hugh Daniel McFadyen (born 31 May 1967) is a lawyer and politician in Manitoba, Canada. From 2006 to 2012, he was the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba, and Leader of the Opposition in the Manitoba legislature.

Following his party's loss in the 2011 election he announced that he would resign as leader as soon as a new leader is appointed. McFadyen officially resigned on 30 July 2012.

McFadyen was born in Selkirk, Manitoba. His aunt Linda McIntosh was a cabinet minister in the provincial government of Gary Filmon, and his great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather were also members of the Manitoba legislature. He has said that former Manitoba Premier Duff Roblin is his political hero.

McFadyen was a successful curler in his youth, and skipped his team to a Canadian Junior Championship in 1986. This win qualified them for the 1987 World Junior Curling Championships where they won a silver medal, losing to Scotland's Douglas Dryburgh. McFadyen's third, Jon Mead, would go on to play for Jeff Stoughton, while his second, Norman Gould, went on to curling success in Japan followed by coaching the 1996 Jeff Stoughton World Championship Curling Team.

McFadyen holds Bachelor of Arts (1990) and Bachelor of Laws (1993) degrees from the University of Manitoba. He was a researcher for the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba in the mid-1990s, and was appointed principal secretary to Premier Gary Filmon following Taras Sokolyk's resignation in September 1998 following the Aboriginal vote splitting scandal. McFadyen represented Filmon as an observer to the federal United Alternative convention, and was deputy campaign manager for the Progressive Conservatives in the 1999 provincial election.

The Progressive Conservatives lost the 1999 election, and McFadyen's position in the Office of the Premier ended with the Filmon government's resignation shortly thereafter. He subsequently practiced law for two years in London, UK with Clifford Chance LLP, did post-graduate work at University College London, and worked for a consulting firm in Toronto. He returned to Manitoba in 2003, and joined the firm Aikins, MacAulay & Thorvaldson. In early 2004, he became the Manitoba chair of Belinda Stronach's bid to lead the newly formed Conservative Party of Canada.

McFadyen managed Sam Katz's successful campaign to become Mayor of Winnipeg in mid-2004, in a municipal by-election that followed the resignation of Glen Murray. Katz later appointed McFadyen as his senior political advisor.

McFadyen resigned as advisor to the mayor in May 2005, in order to seek the federal Conservative Party nomination for Winnipeg South. He defeated rival candidate Rod Bruinooge by only twelve votes at the nomination meeting. When the federal election was deferred, McFadyen was hired by provincial Progressive Conservative leader Stuart Murray as a consultant on urban issues. The Progressive Conservatives were the Official Opposition party in this period, having lost a second election to the New Democratic Party under Gary Doer in 2003.

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