Erin Weir

Early life and education

Weir was born in Saskatoon and grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan. He was the first Saskatchewan high school student to earn a berth in the finals of the Great Canadian Geography Challenge. He attended the University of Regina from 1999 to 2002 where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Great Distinction) in Economics, History and Political Science. Weir also has a Master of Arts in History from the University of Calgary and a Master's in Public Administration from Queen's University.

In 1997 Weir was a Citizen Co-Chair for the "Finding Common Ground on Canada's Future" public consultations on the principles of the Premiers' Calgary Declaration on Canada's Constitution. In 2001 he was a Communications Consultant with the Saskatchewan Government and wrote speeches for cabinet ministers, senior civil servants, and the Premier of Saskatchewan

Weir has long been a writer and essayist having published book chapters, journal articles, policy papers, and entries in reference books. He also has had dozens of "Letters to the Editor" and "Op-Eds" published in many newspapers, going back to when he was submitting to the "Minus 20 Column" in the Regina Leader Post As well, he served as a researcher on oil and gas policy for former Saskatchewan premier Allan Blakeney’s memoirs.

Economist

In 2005, Weir was part of the Government of Canada’s Accelerated Economist Training Program, through which he worked at the Treasury Board Secretariat, Department of Finance, and Privy Council Office. He wrote briefing notes for the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

Weir went on to work as an economist for the Canadian Labour Congress(CLC) and the United Steelworkers union’s Canadian National Office, frequently representing these organizations to the Bank of Canada and parliamentary committees. He participated in the 2008 Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference.

Throughout his career, Weir has also written extensively as a research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

In 2008, Weir served as Canada’s labour representative at a conference hosted by the North American Commission for Labor Cooperation (the body that administers NAFTA’s labour side-agreement).

Weir relocated to Brussels, Belgium, in 2010 and 2011 to work as Senior Economist at the International Trade Union Confederation The ITUC is the global umbrella organization of national labour centrals (including the CLC), representing 175 million workers in 153 countries.

Weir contributed to international campaigns for a financial transactions tax and quality public services. He drafted the trade union statement for the 2011 World Economic Forum and prepared reports on core labour standards in Hong Kong and Sri Lanka for the World Trade Organization.

Weir was a trade union delegate to the 100th session of the International Labour Conference, which sets International Labour Organization policy. He has also represented trade unions in meetings with the World Bank, European Commission, Financial Stability Board, International Monetary Fund and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Advocacy

Weir has appeared on CBC’s The National and CBC News Network (Often on The Lang & O'Leary Exchange), Global National, TVO’s Agenda with Steve Paikin, CTS’s Michael Coren Show, CPAC, and the Business News Network. He has many published letters to the Editor and Op-Eds in The Globe and Mail, National Post and Toronto Star. He has also testified many times to committees of the Parliament of Canada and Legislative Assemblies of Ontario and Saskatchewan, and has provided frequent national and local radio interviews, in both English and French.

Weir often defends the positions of the United Steelworkers and of the NDP in the Canadian media. He has defended the Obama Administration's "Buy America" policy as possibly benefiting Canada. Weir has been a frequent commentator on the need for higher resource royalties He has extensively argued against the implementation of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) in Ontario

In 2005 Weir became the Treasurer of the Progressive Economics Forum, an organization that aims to promote the development of a progressive economics community in Canada. He became President of the forum in 2010. Since 2006 he has been blogging as Relentlessly Progressive Economics, the PEF’s blog, a source of real-time commentary on Canadian economic policy issues. His blog post topics tend to focus on resource royalty issues, the Canadian labour market, and provincial and federal public policy.

Since May 2012, Weir has uploaded many of these interviews as videos to his YouTube channel

Member of Parliament

Weir was nominated as the NDP candidate in Regina-Lewvan and was successful in winning the 2015 Federal election. He was appointed the party's critic for Public Services and Procurement Canada. He was also appointed as the Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.

Carbon Tariff

After the federal government announced a pan--Canadian price on carbon, Weir called for border adjustments to that pricing, pointing out that different carbon prices between countries can result in “carbon leakage.” This was noted in the Saskatchewan media as a rebuttal of Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall's attack on the federal carbon pricing initiative. Weir's proposal was eventually adopted by Peter Julian, during his campaign for federal NDP Leader.

Party background

Weir was the Vice-president and President of the SYND (the youth wing of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party) and served on the Saskatchewan NDP's Youth-Party Liaison Committee He has also been a member of Provincial Council, the Provincial Executive, The Commonwealth Editorial Board, a member of the Saskatchewan NDP's Legislative Advisory Committee where he attended meetings of the Sask NDP Caucus.

In May 2012 while Weir was presenting in front of the Parliamentary Finance committee, he was attacked by Conservative MP Randy Hoback - who asked him the question "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the NDP party[sic]". Both the CBC and CPAC made comparisons to McCarthyism based on this line of questioning from Hoback.

2004 federal election

In 2004, Weir ran in the Federal riding of Wascana against then Liberal finance minister Ralph Goodale for the Liberals and Doug Cryer for the newly formed Conservative party.

Note: Conservative vote is compared to the Canadian Alliance vote in 2000 election.

2013 Saskatchewan NDP leadership

See Saskatchewan New Democratic Party leadership election, 2013

Draft Weir movement

In June 2012 a group of over 50 Canadian Economists sent a public letter calling on Erin Weir to enter the 2013 Sask NDP Leadership Race. Also a group of notable New Democrats including former NDP M.P. Dick Proctor and former NDP premier Howard Pawley of Manitoba created a "Committee to Draft Erin Weir".

Campaign

On September 7, 2012 Weir, then aged 30, announced he was entering the race. He addressed the issue of his not having a seat by saying "I would see it advantageous as having a leader that is not tied down to Regina all the time and free to tour the province." He also made the comparison to Jack Layton and the federal NDP of the time. Earlier that week, he had addressed his age saying the age of the candidate should not be the focus of voters and that “Public policy is more important,”.

He was one of four declared candidates including MLA Cam Broten, doctor Ryan Meili, and MLA Trent Wotherspoon.

His campaign was described by the media as organized and one of the main political commentators in the province said the race was "highly competitive" and "The fact they could all win is probably incentive for all four to run."

Withdrawal

On February 20, 2013, Weir withdrew from the leadership race and endorsed fellow candidate Ryan Meili.

2015 federal election

On April 11, 2014 Weir announced that he was seeking the NDP Nomination in the new Federal Riding of Regina—Lewvan. He was nominated on June 22, 2014, defeating former 2011 Palliser federal NDP candidate Noah Evanchuk. He was elected on October 19, 2015, prevailing over Conservative candidate Trent Fraser by 132 votes according to the results validated by the Returning Officer. Fraser initially requested a recount, but the request was later withdrawn.

Publications

Awards