Dan Albas

Background

Born in 1976, Dan Albas' family moved to Penticton when he was three years old. With his two sisters, he was raised in mostly in Penticton by a father who worked as a lawyer and was active in conservative politics and a mother who worked as a social worker. The family spent a short time living in Whitehorse, Yukon, but moved to Alberta to seek medical treatment after an accident left Dan with severe burns over much of his body. They moved back to Penticton where Albas attended Penticton Secondary School and Okanagan University College. He worked as a martial arts instructor and in the late-1990s he opened his own martial arts studio, Kick City Martial Arts (later renamed Premier Martial Arts). In 2005 his studio held a fund-raiser in which pledges were taken by students who would break boards with martial arts moves in support of a Hurricane Katrina-related charity. The Penticton and Wine Country Chamber of Commerce named Albas the 2005 young entrepreneur of the year. In the same year Albas became a board member on the Chamber of Commerce and was appointed to represent the region on the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce. He helped merge the independent Chambers of Commerce in Penticton, Okanagan Falls, Oliver and Osoyoos into the South Okanagan Chamber of Commerce. He ran the regional United Way fund-raising campaign in 2007 and again in 2010. In 2008 he became active with a community group called the Penticton Housing Coalition advocating for affordable housing in the city, like secondary suites.

Municipal politics

In the 2008 local government elections the 31-year-old Albas ran, and placed first with 5,656 votes, for a seat on the Penticton City Council. Albas became known as the most fiscally-conservative councillor on an already fiscally-conservative council. Beyond the measures agreed to by the council, Albas sought to avoid having the city purchase or pay for a fire-rescue boat, the restoration of the SS Sicamous, landscaping improvements at the South Okanagan Events Centre and the beaches, mobile radar speed signs, building an agricultural centre in the downtown area and unsuccessfully tried to defer the hiring of additional fire department officers and eliminate a 2.1% raise in councillor salaries (though all were approved by council despite Albas opposing the motions). He voted against opening public library on Sundays to avoid the extra costs and against raising the electricity rate to match FortisBC rate increases (the city purchases power from FortisBC and sells it to citizens), and requiring developers who work with the city to have professional liability insurance, though all were approved by council. Initiatives that Albas began or assisted with included bylaw enforcement fines for aggressive pan-handling, keeping a Canada Post outlet in the downtown area. Believing public transit should be funded through user fees, he voted against acquiring new buses from BC Transit unless it was paid for through higher fares and later sought to raise fares by 25% to fund operational costs. He drew criticism as a councillor for interfering with staff management and for posting speculative comments on his blog regarding privatization of city services. Albas was appointed to be a director at the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen where he was successful he reducing the Regional District's contribution to the Okanagan Film Commission by 50%; Albas became an alternate director in 2009 and 2010.

Federal politics

In March 2011, after Stockwell Day, the MP for Okanagan—Coquihalla for the last 11 years, unexpectedly announced his retirement, a nomination election was held to seek his replacement as the Conservative Party nominee. Albas faced two other candidates: Marshall Neufeld who had worked as Day's parliamentary assistant and West Kelowna landscaper Russell Ensign. A fourth candidate, Chamber of Commerce president Jason Cox, campaigned but missed the deadline for submitting his nomination papers. The nomination election came under criticism from Conservative Party members for being rushed; the vote was held only 10 days after Day's announcement leaving several potential candidates unable to participate and leading to accusations that the three candidates had been given advanced notice of events.

The 2011 federal election campaign began soon after the nomination vote. Albas faced former Summerland councillor David Finnis of the New Democratic Party, semi-retired Ashcroft businessman John Kidder for the Liberal Party, Penticton marketer Dan Bouchard for the Green Party, Penticton doctor Dietrich Wittel (independent), and West Kelowna real estate agent Sean Upshaw who campaign in protest of the Conservative Party nomination process which he felt excluded from due to its rushed vote. Albas won the election in the Okanagan—Coquihalla riding with 54% of the vote and his Conservative Party formed a majority government. When the 41st Parliament began Albas was appointed to the 'Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities' and the 'Standing Joint Committee on Scrutiny of Regulations'. In the House of Commons, Albas introduced Private Members Bill C-311, entitled An Act to amend the Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act (interprovincial importation of wine for personal use) (Bill C-311) which would allow individuals to import wine from another province for the purpose of personal consumption. The existing law, which dates back to the Prohibition era, only allows provincial liquor boards to do this.

Some 83 years ago during the prohibition era, a law was passed to make it illegal for everyday citizens to transport or ship wine across provincial borders. It is, for all intents and purposes, an interprovincial trade barrier, meaning that a winery in Quebec cannot legally send a bottle of wine to a customer in Alberta. Here is where it gets more redundant. That same Quebec winery that cannot legally send a bottle of wine to Alberta can send that exact same bottle of wine to Texas. Many small Canadian wineries can access markets outside our borders more easily than they can inside our own great country.

Bill C-311 received first reading on October 3, second reading on December 7, 2011. It received unanimous support by all parties at third reading on June 6, 2012.

On Sept. 19, 2013, he became Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board.