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The Honourable Deborah Grey PC OC
Grey in 2014
Acting Chairman of theSecurity Intelligence Review Committee
In office January 24, 2014 – May 1, 2015
Appointed by	Stephen Harper
Preceded by	Chuck Strahl
Succeeded by	Pierre Blais
Leader of the Opposition
In office March 27, 2000 – September 10, 2000
Preceded by	Preston Manning
Succeeded by	Stockwell Day
Interim Leader of theCanadian Alliance
In office March 27, 2000 – July 8, 2000
Preceded by	Preston Manning (as Leader of theReform Party)
Succeeded by	Stockwell Day
Member of Parliament forEdmonton North (Beaver River; 1989–1997)
In office March 13, 1989 – June 28, 2004
Preceded by	John Dahmer (1988)
Succeeded by	Riding abolished
Personal details
Born	Deborah Cleland Grey (1952-07-01)July 1, 1952 (age 73) Vancouver,British Columbia, Canada
Political party	Conservative (2003–present)
Other political affiliations	Reform (1989–2000) Canadian Alliance (2000–2001, 2002–2003) Democratic Representative Caucus (2001–2002)
Spouse	Lewis Larson (m. 1993)
Profession	Politician teacher [1]

Deborah Cleland Grey (born July 1, 1952) is a retired Canadian politician who served as theleader of the Official Opposition in 2000, from March to September. Grey was elected to theHouse of Commons in 1989, serving as themember of Parliament (MP) forBeaver River until 1997 and MP forEdmonton North until 2004. Grey was a member of theReform Party. When Reform merged with theCanadian Alliance in 2000, she served as theinterim party leader, making her the first woman to serve as leader of the Opposition. She currently serves on the advisory board of theLeaders' Debates Commission.^[2][3]

Born inVancouver, British Columbia, Grey pursued studies in sociology, English and education atBurrard Inlet Bible Institute,Trinity Western College and theUniversity of Alberta, however she did not complete a bachelor’s degree. She then worked as a teacher in a number of rural Alberta communities until 1989.

Grey's first run for office was in the1988 election, when she ran as the Reform candidate inBeaver River, a mostly rural riding in northeastern Alberta.^[1] She finished a distant fourth behindProgressive ConservativeJohn Dahmer. However, Dahmer died before he could be sworn in. Grey won aby-election in March 1989, almost tripling her vote total from the 1988 election to become Reform's first MP.^[1] It was only the second time the Progressive Conservatives had lost a seat in Alberta since 1968^[a]. Party leaderPreston Manning immediately named her as Reform's deputy leader. The two were friends for many years; Grey calls him "Misterbrainiola". Her first legislative assistant was a youngStephen Harper.

Reform elected 52 MPs in the1993 election, replacing the Progressive Conservatives as the main right-wing party in Canada. Grey won her first full term in this election. In addition to her duties as deputy leader, she also became chairwoman of the enlarged Reform caucus. In 1997, Beaver River was abolished and its territory split into two neighbouring ridings. Grey moved toEdmonton North at the request of several local conservatives dissatisfied with being represented by aLiberal,John Loney (elected in the 1993 landslide). Loney retired ahead ofthat year's election, and Grey won handily. She continued to represent this riding for the remainder of her career. Reform became theOfficial Opposition in that election.^[1]

Grey served as Reform's deputy leader and caucus chairwoman until March 2000, when the Reform Party was folded into theCanadian Alliance. When Manning stepped down asLeader of the Opposition to contest the Alliance leadership race, Grey was appointedinterim leader of the Alliance, and hence Leader of the Opposition.^[1] She was the first female Leader of the Opposition in Canadian history. She held the post until new Alliance leaderStockwell Day was elected to theHouse of Commons in September 2000. He appointed Grey as deputy leader and caucus chairwoman once again.

Grey resigned those posts on April 24, 2001, in protest against Day's leadership. In July of that year, Grey quit the Canadian Alliance and joined 10 other Alliance dissidents in the "Independent Alliance Caucus". WhileChuck Strahl eventually emerged as the dissidents' leader, Grey lent the group instant credibility since she had been Reform/Alliance's matriarch as well as the deputy leader. When Day offered an amnesty to the dissidents, Grey was one of seven who turned it down and formed theDemocratic Representative Caucus (DRC), led by Strahl with Grey as deputy leader. In September 2001, the DRC formed a coalition caucus with the Progressive Conservatives, and Grey served as chairwoman of the PC-DRC caucus. She later said that she lost confidence in Day after seeing him attack his staffers after a public gaffe.

In April 2002, after Harper defeated Day in the race to be the Alliance leader, Grey and all but two of the DRC MPs rejoined the Alliance caucus, and in December 2003, the Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives ratified an agreement to merge into the Conservative Party of Canada. Grey was co-chair, with former PC leaderPeter MacKay, of the new party'sfirst leadership convention in March 2004.

Grey was not shy about tossing verbal barbs at the governingLiberals. She calledJean Chrétien "the Shawinigan Strangler",Don Boudria "Binder Boy",Jane Stewart "Miss Management" andPaul Martin "Captain Whirlybird".

Deborah Grey is also well known for refusing to join the lucrative MP Pension Plan and ridiculing other "MP porkers" for feeding at the public trough. Later she bought her way back into the pension plan resulting in former Prime Minister Joe Clark labelling her the "high priestess of hypocrisy".^[4]

Grey's riding ofEdmonton North was abolished for the2004 federal election, and Grey retired from politics rather than attempting nomination in another.^[1] She was Western chairwoman of the Conservative campaign in the2006 election, in which Harper becamePrime Minister of Canada.

Shortly after retiring, she published her autobiography,Never Retreat, Never Explain, Never Apologize: My Life and My Politics. In 2007, she was made an Officer of theOrder of Canada. On April 22, 2013, she was appointed to theSecurity Intelligence Review Committee, and along with that appointment, was made aPrivy Councillor, giving her the title, "The Honourable". It was announced that Grey was stepping down from the Security Intelligence Review Committee on May 1, 2015, in a press release from the Prime Minister's Office.^[5]

Grey has been married to Lewis Larson since August 7, 1993; they have no children together. They are grandparents through Lewis' children by his first marriage.

• Official site
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