Elizabeth Weir

Trained as a lawyer, Elizabeth Weir was the first woman leader of a political party elected to New Brunswick’s Legislative Assembly. Winning four elections, she served for 14 years. In the Legislature she was a strong voice for progressive change in public policy and gained national recognition for her work as a parliamentarian.

In 2005, Elizabeth was appointed as a Deputy Minister to lead the creation of the province’s new energy efficiency agency, Efficiency New Brunswick. Under her stewardship the Agency won the “International Star of Energy Efficiency Award” – the first Canadian agency to win this award.

Following this, she focused her career on international development. Using her parliamentary experience, Elizabeth spent almost two decades training MPs, parliamentary committee members, political party and civil society activists in 26 countries around the world. Her work focused on sharing good parliamentary practices, particularly in supporting women MPs to strengthen gender equality in their parliaments and parliamentary work.

She has been awarded two honourary doctorates for her legislative accomplishments and international parliamentary development work from the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University.

In November 2021, she was inducted as a member of the Order of New Brunswick, the province’s highest civilian honour for “her exceptional service and leadership dedicated to the promotion of equality and social justice”.