Roger Gallaway

Roger John Gallaway, PC , LL.B , BA (born May 23, 1948 in Sarnia, Ontario) is a Canadian politician. He was a member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 2006, representing the riding of Sarnia—Lambton for the Liberal Party.

Gallaway has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario and an LL.B from the University of Windsor. He practiced law before entering political life, and was involved in a variety of community organizations in the Sarnia area. In 1991, he was elected mayor of Point Edward.

On one occasion, Gallaway's license to practice law was suspended by the Ontario Law Society on charges of fraud. The controversy does not appear to have affected his political standing, and is seldom mentioned in political discourse. The specifics of Gallaway's case do not appear to be available in the public domain, making it difficult to ascertain if Gallaway was actually involved in unethical behaviour.

Gallaway was first elected to parliament in the 1993 federal election, defeating Progressive Conservative incumbent Ken James by over 10,000 votes. He was re-elected by similarly large pluralities in the elections of 1997 and 2000, and defeated Conservative candidate Marcel Beaubien by over 5,000 votes in the 2004 election. He was defeated by Conservative Patricia Davidson by over 4,000 votes in the 2006 election. Soon afterwards, Gallaway blamed the Liberals' ouster from Canadian government on the leadership of Paul Martin, and was the first from within the party to call for Martin's resignation as party leader.

Gallaway was a maverick MP on the right-wing of the Liberal Party. He once ran for Speaker of the House of Commons in 1997, being eliminated on the second ballot. He has been a vocal opponent of the federal gun registry for many years, and unsuccessfully attempted to cut off funding for the program in late 2004. Gallaway has also called for government funding to be withdrawn from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and opposed negative option billing by cable companies in the late 1990s.

He also holds socially conservative views on some issues, although he has not emphasized these as strongly as others within the party, such as Tom Wappel and Rose-Marie Ur. He is a personal friend and frequent political ally of Liberal-turned-Conservative Senator Anne Cools, and has worked with her to reform Canada's divorce laws in recent years: both Cools and Gallaway have sought to ensure greater custody rights for fathers.

From December 2003 to July 2004, Gallaway served as parliamentary secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, with special emphasis on democratic reform.

Gallaway is also a musician. He formed the band "True Grit" with several Liberal MPs, including Joe Fontana and future prime minister Jean Chrétien (who played trombone). Gallaway has also appeared in performances with Sarnia/Port Huron's International Symphony, and was the narrator of a "Child's Introduction to the Symphony".

Gallaway supported Bob Rae's unsuccessful bid to become leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.