Andrew Thomson (Canadian politician)

Infobox_Politician
name = Andrew Thomson
small

caption =
birth_date =
birth_place =
residence =
office = MLA for Regina South
term_start = 1995
term_end = November 20, 2007
predecessor =
successor = Bill Hutchinson
party = New Democrat
religion =
occupation =

Andrew Thomson is a former member of the NDP caucus and former member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. While in government, he held several cabinet posts, including Minister of Finance, Minister Responsible for Information Technology and Minister Responsible for SaskEnergy.

Thomson was born and raised in rural Saskatchewan. He has a Bachelor's degree in Political Studies from the University of Saskatchewan. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan in 1995, and was re-elected in 1999 and 2003. He lived in and represented the riding of Regina South.

Thomson was formerly Minister of Energy and Mines in 2001, Minister of Corrections and Public Safety in 2002, and Minister of Learning in 2003. As Minister of Learning he introduced changes to reduce the number of elected school boards and create new parent councils. As Minister of Information Technology he oversaw the introduction of the CommunityNet program that provides access to high-speed internet broadband to rural and urban communities and introduced free wi-fi [Saskatchewan unwires province [http://www.wifinetnews.com/archives/007438.html] URL accessed May 13, 2007] to select urban areas. As a result of the program 86% of the population has access to broadband.

As Minister of Finance during a period of rising resource revenues, he introduced the largest tax cuts in the province's history by lowering sales taxes, capital taxes, and corporate income taxes in 2006.

On May 11, 2007, Thomson announced he would not seek re-election. [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Sask. finance minister won't run again
work =
publisher = CBC News
date = 2007-05-11
url = http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2007/05/11/thomson-not-running.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-08-10] Premier Lorne Calvert shuffled his cabinet on May 31, 2007, replacing Thomson as finance minister with Pat Atkinson. [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Atkinson gets finance, Thomson gets out in major cabinet shuffle
work =
publisher = CBC News
date = 2007-05-31
url = http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2007/05/31/cabinet-shuffle.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-08-10] He then went on to pursue a career in the private sector. [cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = NDP had a 'good run in government'
work =
publisher = CBC News
date = 2007-11-07
url = http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskvotes2007/story/2007/11/07/ndp-results.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2008-08-10]

References

External links

* [http://www.saskndp.com/riding/read.php3?id=97 NDP Website]