Linda Duncan

Early life and career

Linda Duncan was born in Edmonton on June 25, 1949. Her father, Darcy Duncan, a second-generation lawyer, supported the family which included a brother, a younger sister and an older sister, along with their mother. She grew up in the south side of Edmonton. She attended the University of Alberta, graduating from their law school. With an interest in environmental law she passed upon the opportunity to join a law firm and founded the Environmental Law Centre in 1982 to assist Albertans concerned with environmental and natural resources law.

In 1987, Duncan was recruited by the federal Minister of Environment to establish a new enforcement unit at Environment Canada. After a year in Ottawa, she move onto Whitehorse where she worked as the assistant deputy Minister for Renewable Resources in the Yukon government. She moved to Montreal after she accepted a position helping lead the enforcement department of NAFTA's Commission for Environmental Cooperation. Through projects by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank she helped establish environmental law enforcement systems in Jamaica, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. During this time, in the 1990s, she earned a Master of Laws from Dalhousie Law School and taught several courses. Following the death of her father and two sisters she moved back to Edmonton in 1999.

On the local level, in addition to her work at the Environmental Law Centre in Edmonton, she worked on projects with the Edmonton Social Planning Council, Alberta's Clean Air Strategic Alliance, and the Canadian Council on Human Resources for the Environment Industry. She served on the Board of Directors the Sierra Legal Defence Fund from 2001 to 2007. Her family has had a cottage at Wabamun Lake since her youth and she has participated on the Lake Wabamun Enhancement and Protection Association. Acting as their vice-president during the August 2005 CN Rail oil spill she was interviewed in the media on behalf of the land owners and lake users. With the association and the Sierra Legal Defence Fund she helped make a submission to the United Nations Environment Programme noting Canada was not enforcing the legally-binding Heavy Metals Protocol, making specific reference to high levels of mercury being released from coal-fired power plants.

Politics

For the 39th Canadian federal election, in January 2006, Duncan ran as the New Democratic Party candidate for the riding of Edmonton-Strathcona. The contest was expected to be close so in the final days of the campaign the party shifted resources there and the party leader, Jack Layton, traveled the riding, his second visit during the campaign. Nevertheless, incumbent Conservative Rahim Jaffer won the riding over Duncan by almost 5,000 votes.

On January 19, 2007, Duncan accepted the NDP nomination in Edmonton-Strathcona, by acclamation, to again seek election to Parliament in the 40th Canadian federal election. The election campaign began in September 2008. To make environmental protection an election issue, Duncan and Jack Layton flew over the tar sands area noting environmentally damaging practices. Duncan made support for public health care, enforcement of environmental laws, and driving the economy with 'green jobs' priorities in her campaign. She drew upon support from a large volunteer network built since the last election and strategic voting from Liberal supporters. With the polls showing a close race, incumbent Conservative candidate launched an attack ad against Duncan. On election night, October 14, the results showed Jaffer as the leader, by 1,000 votes with over half the polls reporting. Jaffer delivered his victory speech around 10 p.m. and several people were calling the election a win for Jaffer. However, late polls, which included residences around the University of Alberta, put Duncan ahead. Following a few days of silence and after his fiancee, fellow Conservative Member of Parliament Helena Guergis, flew to Edmonton and quietly married him, Jaffer conceded defeat to Duncan. With a 463-vote margin, Duncan became the only non-Conservative MP in Alberta.

During the ensuing 40th Canadian Parliament Duncan was appointed to the position of NDP critic on the Environment. In the Parliament's aborted first session she strongly opposed the government's proposed fiscal update, especially the proposed changes to pay equity claims, four-year wage cap, and suspension of the right to strike for federal employees. She supported the proposed coalition government and condemned the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, for labeling the coalition government as "treasonous" and "criminal". When Parliament resumed in January 2009, Duncan sat as a member of the House Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. She supported Ecojustice and the Sierra Club's lawsuit against the government's waiver of federal environmental assessment reviews on infrastructure projects arguing that it required an act of Parliament, rather than the Conservative government's Order in Council. She vocally supported the opposition's Corporate Accountability of Mining, Oil and Gas Corporations in Developing Countries Act that would hold Canadian companies accountable in Canadian courts for human rights and environmental abuses committed in other countries. Duncan introduced three bills into during the second and third sessions: the first proposing that the third Friday of February be declared National Hockey Day, the second establishing an Environmental Bill of Rights, and the third would have amended the Criminal Code to restrict the use of hand-held telecommunications devices while driving. On a private member's bill to abolish the federal gun registry, Linda Duncan was the only MP from Alberta who voted against abolishing the gun registry.

Duncan was re-elected, with over 50% of the vote in Edmonton—Strathcona, to 41st Canadian Parliament. She introduced one piece of legislation, a private member bill titled National Literacy Policy Act (Bill C-327) which received first reading on October 5, 2011, but did not advance from there. The bill would have required the government adopt a policy for promoting literacy in Canada and take measures to enact the policy.

In 2014, Linda Duncan introduced an Act to establish a Canadian Environmental Bill of Rights, Bill C-634, "whose provisions apply to all decisions that emanate from a federal source or are related to federal land or a federal work or undertaking".

Duncan spoke at a Jack Layton memorial on August 24, 2012. The event was billed as "Dear Jack" and she was joined by several other prominent figures.

After the 2015 election, Duncan was appointed the NDP critic for Transport in the 42nd Canadian Parliament.