Greg Byrne

Who is Greg Byrne?

Greg Byrne, Q.C. is a lawyer and a former MLA in the province of New Brunswick, Canada.

Byrne was educated at Fredericton High School, Saint Thomas University and the University of New Brunswick.

A Liberal, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick in the 1995 provincial election. He joined the cabinet of Frank McKenna in 1997 as junior minister responsible for mines and energy. He resigned from cabinet in 1998 in order to run in the leadership convention to replace McKenna who had resigned later in 1997. Byrne finished second to Camille Thériault at the convention. Thériault named Byrne to his cabinet in the more senior roles of Attorney General of New Brunswick and Government House Leader.

Like many of his Liberal colleagues, Byrne fell victim to the massive Progressive Conservative sweep in the 1999 election, losing his seat by only 264 votes.

In 2002, he co-chaired the successful leadership bid of Shawn Graham to succeed Thériault. In 2003, he was elected president of the New Brunswick Liberals and he was re-elected in 2005. Byrne ran and won the riding of Fredericton-Lincoln running as a Liberal candidate in the 2006 election. Following the election, he was returned to the cabinet as Minister of Business New Brunswick and stepped down as president of the party.