Dick Fowler

Who was Dick Fowler?

Richard S. "Dick" Fowler was a former member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Minister of the Crown in the Government of Alberta, two-time mayor of St. Albert, Alberta, and Judge of the Provincial Court of Alberta.

Born in Edson, Dick Fowler was first elected as Mayor of St. Albert in 1965, and served a single term in this capacity. He did not seek re-election in 1968. However, he returned to office in 1980 as the only candidate to replace the retiring Ronald Harvey. He was acclaimed again in 1983 and re-elected in 1986 with nearly seventy percent of the vote, but resigned in 1989, months before the end of his third term, to run as the Progressive Conservative candidate in the 1989 provincial election in St. Albert.

Incumbent New Democrat Bryan Strong was not seeking re-election, and Fowler defeated his closest challenger, Liberal Len Bracko, by more than two thousand votes. He was made Solicitor General in the cabinet of Don Getty, a role he filled until February 1992, when Getty appointed him to the joint portfolios of Municipal Affairs and Native Affairs. When Ralph Klein became Premier in December 1992, Fowler was named Minister of Justice and Attorney General in the first Klein government. Despite his profile as a cabinet minister, Fowler was defeated by Bracko in the 1993 election.