Jerry Pickard

Jerry Pickard, PC, MP (born November 14, 1940 in Chatham, Ontario) is a former Canadian politician. He was a member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1988 until his retirement in 2005 representing the riding of Chatham-Kent—Essex for the Liberal Party in his later terms in office.^[1]

Pickard has Bachelor of Arts and Master of Education degrees from the University of Windsor, and worked as a teacher in the Kent County and Essex County boards of education following his graduation. He was elected to the Kingsville municipal council in 1974 and remained in municipal politics for the next fourteen years, including tenures as deputy reeve and mayor (1984–1988).

He was first elected to parliament in the federal election of 1988, defeating Progressive Conservative incumbent Jim Caldwell by about 6,500 votes in the riding of Essex—Kent. He was re-elected in the 1993 election, and in the redistributed riding of Kent—Essex in the 1997 election.

Pickard's riding was renamed (but not redistributed) as Chatham-Kent—Essex in 1998. In the 2000 election, he defeated a candidate of the Canadian Alliance by over 7,000 votes.

He faced his first difficult re-election in 2004, defeating Conservative candidate Dave Van Kesteren by only 407 votes. Former Liberal MP Rex Crawford campaigned for the Conservative candidate in this election, and some local residents were upset that the federal government had cut down more than 80,000 ash trees to stop a devastating beetle infestation.

Pickard served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food from 1996 to 1997, and to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services from 1997 to 1998. In December 2003, he was named Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, with special emphasis on border transit. He was transferred from this position in July 2004, and named Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry. Pickard did not run in the January 2006 election.

Electoral record

1997 federal election : Kent—Essex edit
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	+/-	Expenditures
	Liberal	(x)Jerry Pickard	21,451	50.20		$48,652
	Reform	Don R. Clarke	8,941	20.92		$32,040
	Progressive Conservative	Jim Hawryluk	6,634	15.53		$28,040
	New Democratic Party	Derry McKeever	4,323	10.12		$22,590
	Christian Heritage	Roger James	621	1.45		$1,951
	Canadian Action	Victor Knight	470	1.10		$1,515
	Green	Greg Zolad	291	0.68		$141
Total valid votes			42,731	100.00
Total rejected ballots			300
Turnout			43,031	59.25
Electors on the lists			72,624

Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada.

References

1. ^ Jerry Pickard - Parliament of Canada biography, Accessed 14 April 2011

Persondata
Name	Pickard, Jerry
Alternative names
Short description	Canadian politician
Date of birth	November 14, 1940
Place of birth	Chatham, Ontario, Canada
Date of death	living
Place of death