Introduction
David Manson Eggen (born 1962) is a Canadian politician. He was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for the riding of Edmonton-Calder from 2004 to 2008, and was re-elected to represent the same district in 2012. Eggen declared his intention to stand in the NDP leadership election being held to choose a successor to Brian Mason. He is currently Minister of Education and Minister of Culture.
Educator
Born in 1962, 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. Eggen regained his seat in the 2012 provincial election and retained it with a greatly increased margin in the 2015 election.
Electoral history
2001 general election
| Alberta general election, 2001: Edmonton-Centre | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ∆% | ||||
| Liberal | Laurie Blakeman | 5,095 | 44.01% | 0.05% | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Don Weideman | 4,446 | 38.41% | 4.91% | ||||
| New Democratic | David Eggen | 1,959 | 16.92% | -0.09% | ||||
| Communist | Naomi Rankin | 76 | 0.66% | * | ||||
| Total | 11,576 | |||||||
| Rejected, spoiled and declined | 105 | |||||||
| Eligible electors / Turnout | 20,907 | 51.58% | ||||||
| Liberal hold | Swing | 2.48% | ||||||
| "Edmonton-Centre Official Results 2001 Alberta general election" (PDF). Elections Alberta. Retrieved March 27, 2010. | ||||||||
2004 general election
| 2004 Alberta general election results | Turnout 49.18% | Swing | ||||
| Affiliation | Candidate | Votes | % | Party | Personal | |
| New Democratic | David Eggen | 4,067 | 36.01% | 16.10% | ||
| Progressive Conservative | Brent Rathgeber | 3,730 | 33.02% | -8.97% | ||
| Liberal | Brad Smith | 2,985 | 26.43% | -11.67% | ||
| Alberta Alliance | Vicki Kramer | 513 | 4.54% | |||
| Total | 11,295 | |||||
| Rejected, spoiled, and declined | 92 | |||||
| Eligible electors / Turnout | 23,671 | % | ||||
| NDP pickup from Progressive Conservative | Swing 12.54% | |||||
2008 general election
| 2008 Alberta general election results | Turnout 38.53% | Swing | ||||
| Affiliation | Candidate | Votes | % | Party | Personal | |
| Progressive Conservative | Doug Elniski | 4,557 | 40.86% | 6.03% | ||
| New Democratic | David Eggen | 4,356 | 39.05% | 3.04% | ||
| Liberal | Jim Kane | 1,839 | 16.49% | -9.94% | ||
| Green | Michael Brown | 402 | 3.60% | * | ||
| Total | 11,514 | |||||
| Rejected, spoiled, and declined | 59 | |||||
| Eligible electors / Turnout | 30,033 | % | ||||
| Progressive Conservative gain from New Democratic | Swing | 4.54% | ||||
2012 general election
| Alberta general election, 2012 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ∆% | * | |||
| NDP | David Eggen | 5,729 | 38.41% | |||||
| Progressive Conservative | Bev Esslinger | 5,183 | 34.75% | |||||
| Wildrose | Rich Neumann | 2,787 | 18.69% | |||||
| Liberal | Alex V Bosse | 970 | 6.50% | |||||
| Alberta Party | David Clark | 194 | 1.30% | |||||
| Social Credit | Margaret Saunter | 52 | 0.35% | |||||
| Total | '14,925 | 100% | ||||||
2015 general election
| Alberta general election, 2015 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |||||
| New Democratic | David Eggen | 12,835 | 70.6% | |||||
| Progressive Conservative | Tom Bradley | 3,220 | 17.7% | |||||
| Wildrose | Andrew Altimas | 1,570 | 8.6% | |||||
| Liberal | Amit Batra | 550 | 3.0% | |||||
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.