Canadian politician, Frank Branch, Died at 74

  Politician

Frank Richard Branch was born on May 7, 1944, in Bathurst, New Brunswick and died October 22, 2018.

He was a Canadian politician.

He was a member of the Liberal party.

Branch was first elected to the New Brunswick Legislature to the multi-member riding for Gloucester County in the 1970 provincial election.

Frank Branch was re-elected to the legislature for the single member riding of Nepisiguit-Chaleur in 1974, 1978, 1982, 1987 and 1991.

Branch served as speaker from 1987-1991 but was neither elected speaker nor named to the cabinet following the 1991 elections and thus did not run for re-election in 1995.

When he retired from politics, Branch chaired a regional forestry marketing board for eight years before he sought re-election in the new, though largely unchanged, riding of Nepisiguit in 2003, where he defeated incumbent Progressive Conservative Joel Bernard by a margin of nearly 2-to-1.

During October 2005, the North Shore Forest Products marketing board, of which Branch is general manager, was taken under investigation, the reason are not yet known.

He left the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent pending the outcome of the investigation on January 13, 2006and on March 23, 2006, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that he had been fired.

Branch served as chair of the legislature’s Public Accounts Committee from the 2003 election until he left the Liberal caucus to sit as an independent.

In 2006, Branch did not seek re-election.

Frank Branch died of cancer in Bathurst, New Brunswick.

He passed away at 74 years old.

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