Dennis Canavan | |
---|---|
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Falkirk West | |
In office 6 May 1999 –2 April 2007 | |
Preceded by | Constituency established |
Succeeded by | Michael Matheson |
Member of Parliament for Falkirk West West Stirlingshire (Oct 1974–1983) | |
In office 10 October 1974 –21 November 2000 | |
Preceded by | William Baxter |
Succeeded by | Eric Joyce |
Personal details | |
Born | Dennis Andrew Canavan 8 August 1942 Cowdenbeath,Scotland |
Political party | Independent (1999–present) |
Other political affiliations | Labour (1974–1999) |
Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
Dennis Andrew Canavan (born 8 August 1942) is a Scottish politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Falkirk West from 1974 to 2000 (known as West Stirlingshire from 1974 to 1983),first as a member of the Labour Party,and then as an Independent. He then served as an Independent Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Falkirk West from 1999 to 2007.
In 2014,he was the chair of the Advisory Board of Yes Scotland,the campaign for independence in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
Born in Cowdenbeath,Canavan was educated at St. Bride's and St. Columba's Schools,Cowdenbeath,St Andrew's College,Drygrange, [1] and at the University of Edinburgh. He worked as a schoolteacher from 1968 until 1974 and was Assistant Head of Holy Rood High School Edinburgh at the time of his first election to Parliament. Canavan was also head of the maths department at St Modans High in Stirling.
He was leader of the Labour Party Group on Stirling District Council in 1974 and,in October of that year,was elected as Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for West Stirlingshire. Following boundary changes,he was MP for Falkirk West from 1983 to 2000. He was Chair of the Scottish Parliamentary Labour Group from 1980 to 1981. In 1975,he tried introducing a bill to abolish corporal punishment in schools and his efforts formed part of the case presented to the European Commission of Human Rights which led eventually to abolition. He voted against the Blair Government's proposals to cut benefits for children of lone parents,abolish student grants and introduce tuition fees.
A keen sports enthusiast,he was founder and Convener of the Scottish Sports Group at Westminster and the Cross-Party Sports Group in the Scottish Parliament. He has completed a marathon in less than three hours and the Ben Nevis Race in just over two hours. He won a gold medal,playing for Scotland in the British Universities Football Championships in 1967. In his book The Final Whistle?,Harry Reid claims that Canavan took part in the 1977 Wembley pitch invasion after Scotland beat England and ripped up a patch of the turf. [2]
He takes an active interest in international affairs and served as a member of the House of Commons select committees on Foreign Affairs and International Development. He is still a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Amnesty International and is interested in conflict resolution.
He chaired the Northern Ireland Committee of the Parliamentary Labour Party from 1989 to 1997,and led several parliamentary delegations to Ireland during The Troubles. He served on the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body from 1992 to 2000. As a member of the European and External Relations Committee of the Scottish Parliament,he was author of a report on the potential for co-operation between Scotland and Ireland. He has frequently spoken out against sectarianism and racism.
Throughout his political life,Canavan played a leading part in the campaign for a Scottish Parliament. When Labour was in opposition,he led a nationwide consultation about devolution,on behalf of the Scottish Group of Labour MPs,leading to the publication of a bill to establish a Scottish Parliament with revenue-raising powers. However,in 1999,when the first elections to the Scottish Parliament were held,the New Labour leadership rejected him as an official Labour candidate,despite the fact that he had the support of 97% of local party members. He therefore stood as an Independent,and was consequently expelled from the party. [3] Although there were rumours he would join the Scottish National Party,he did not join another party. He won with almost 55 percent of the vote,the highest majority of any MSP in the 1999 election. [4] [5] He resigned his Westminster seat in 2000 to concentrate on representing his constituents in the Scottish Parliament. Canavan retained his Holyrood seat in 2003 with 55.7 percent of the vote,again with the biggest majority in Scotland.
In the Scottish Parliament,he was a member of the European and External Relations Committee and Convener of the All-Party Sports Group from 1999. [6] [7] In 2003 he criticised the Scottish football authorities when Falkirk Football Club was refused promotion to the Scottish Premier League,despite having won the First Division Championship. He supported Falkirk's efforts to build a new stadium for community use and he still regularly attends the club's matches. He is also Honorary President of Milton Amateurs Football Club.
Canavan enjoys hill-walking and,in the Scottish Parliament,he championed the people's right of access to the countryside,successfully introducing amendments to the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill to extend the right of access to country estates,including land belonging to the Queen. He is now President of Ramblers Scotland.
He is a strong supporter of the idea of a national holiday to celebrate St Andrew's Day, [8] and his bill to achieve this was eventually passed as the St. Andrew's Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Act 2007. [9]
When he announced his retirement before the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections, [10] he was the longest serving parliamentarian in the Scottish Parliament,having completed a combined 33 years at Westminster and Holyrood. After this announcement he received an ovation in the Chamber of the Scottish Parliament from other MSPs and was praised by the First Minister Jack McConnell as "an outstanding parliamentarian over a long,long period of time". [11]
In April 2010,Canavan declared his support for John McNally,the Scottish National Party candidate for Falkirk in the 2010 general election. Falkirk is the successor to Canavan's former Westminster constituency. [12]
Canavan has been a member of the board of trustees of the National Mining Museum Scotland. [13] He has been a patron of Bonnybridge Driving Force,a charity involved with the organisation of volunteer drivers transporting patients to and from hospital. [14]
In 2018,the Scottish Government commissioned an independent review into the impact of policing on communities during the miners strike and Canvan was appointed a member of the advisory panel. [15] [16]
He has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Stirling [17] and Strathclyde.
In recognition of his public service,Falkirk Council launched the Dennis Canavan Scholarship to encourage young people to go on to further or higher education and to use their talents to help others. [18]
Canavan's marriage to Elnor Canavan ended in divorce. They had four children,all of whom predeceased him;he also has a son with his partner. [19] [20]
His autobiography,Let the People Decide,was published by Birlinn in September 2009. ( ISBN 978-1-84158839-1) [21]
Donald Campbell Dewar was a Scottish statesman and politician who served as the inaugural first minister of Scotland and leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 1999 until his death in 2000. He previously served as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1997 to 1999. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Anniesland from 1978 to 2000. Dewar was also Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the equivalent seat from 1999 to 2000.
The first election to the devolved Scottish Parliament, to fill 129 seats, took place on 6 May 1999. Following the election, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats formed the Scottish Executive, with Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) Donald Dewar becoming First Minister.
Margaret Anne Ewing was a Scottish politician and journalist. She served as a Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament for East Dunbartonshire from 1974 to 1979 and Moray from 1987 to 2001, and was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Moray from 1999 until 2006.
Annabelle Janet Ewing is a Scottish politician and lawyer who has served as Deputy Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, alongside Liam McArthur, since May 2021. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Cowdenbeath constituency since 2016, having previously been an MSP for the Mid Scotland and Fife region from 2011 to 2016.
Eric Stuart Joyce is a Scottish politician, former military officer and convicted child sex offender. A former member of the Labour Party, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Falkirk, formerly Falkirk West, from 2000 to 2015.
Sir George Newlands Reid is a Scottish politician and journalist who served as Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament from 2003 to 2007. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), he was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Mid Scotland and Fife region from 1999 to 2003 and then for the Ochil constituency from 2003 to 2007. Reid was Member of Parliament (MP) for Clackmannan and East Stirlingshire from February 1974 to 1979.
Robert Hardie Bruce Crawford is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as Cabinet Secretary for Parliamentary Business and Government Strategy from 2011 to 2012, having held the junior ministerial position of Minister for Parliamentary Business from 2007 to 2011. Crawford served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Stirling from 2007 to 2021, having previously represented the Mid Scotland and Fife region 1999–2007.
Richard James Baker is a Scottish Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Glenrothes and Mid Fife since 2024. Baker was previously a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the North East Scotland region.
Michael Stephen Matheson is a Scottish politician who has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) since 1999, first representing the Central Scotland region and, since 2007, the Falkirk West constituency. Matheson previously served in the Scottish government as Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care from 2023 to 2024, Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport from 2018 to 2023, and Cabinet Secretary for Justice from 2014 to 2018.
Johann MacDougall Lamont is a Scottish Labour Co-operative politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2011 to 2014. She was previously a junior Scottish Executive minister from 2004 to 2007 and Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2008 until her election to the leadership in 2011. In addition to her ministerial and leadership roles, she has been a campaigner on equality issues and violence against women throughout her political career.
Falkirk is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 2005 general election, replacing Falkirk West and part of Falkirk East.
Falkirk East is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of Falkirk. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality method of election. Also, however, it is one of nine constituencies in the Central Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Falkirk West is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of Falkirk. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality method of election. Also, however, it is one of nine constituencies in the Central Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Motherwell and Wishaw is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of North Lanarkshire. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality method of election. It is also one of nine constituencies in the Central Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999. Local elections in Scotland fell on the same day.
James Anthony Kelly is a Scottish politician who has served as General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party since 2021. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region between 2016 and 2021, having previously been MSP for Rutherglen from 2007 to 2016.
Ross Thomson is a former Scottish Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberdeen South from 2017 to 2019. Thomson was the first Conservative MP elected for Aberdeen South since the 1992 general election, 25 years earlier. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the North East Scotland region from May 2016 until June 2017. He was elected to Aberdeen City Council in the 2012 local elections.
Neil Charles Gray is a Scottish politician serving as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care since 2024. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), he has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Airdrie & Shotts since 2021. Gray previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the equivalent Westminster seat from 2015 to 2021. He served as Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy from 2023 to 2024, and Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development from 2022 to 2023.
Douglas Gordon Ross is a Scottish politician who has served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party since 2020 and Leader of the Opposition in Scotland since 2021. He served as Member of the UK Parliament (MP) for Moray from 2017 to 2024. Ross currently serves as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Highlands and Islands, having been elected as a regional list MSP in 2021. He was previously MSP for the region from 2016 to 2017.
Stephen Charles Kerr is a Scottish Conservative & Unionist politician, currently serving as a Member of the Scottish Parliament for Central Scotland Region since 2021. From 2021 to 2022, Kerr served as the Convener of the Education, Children and Young People Committee. Prior to his election to Holyrood, Kerr was the Member of Parliament for Stirling from 2017 to 2019.