Kelly Lamrock
Kelly Lamrock is a lawyer and political consultant in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. He was previously a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick for Fredericton-Fort Nashwaak, and Minister of Social Development in the New Brunswick cabinet before opening Lamrock's Law in Fredericton.
Before politics
Kelly Lamrock was born in Saskatchewan on February 5, 1970. He moved with his family to British Columbia and lived there until his family relocated permanently to Fredericton, New Brunswick when he was eight years old. As a child Lamrock attended Garden Creek Elementary School and Albert Street Middle School. As a teenager he attended Fredericton High School. While there he competed in the World High School Public Speaking Championship, where he placed second, and was the winner of several national debating competitions.He attended St. Thomas University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts, and the University of New Brunswick, where he earned a Bachelor of Laws. He was president of the student unions at both institutions, the first and so far the only student to have occupied both posts. He was also involved in national student politics; he served as president of the Canadian Federation of Students and then was a leader in the split within that organization that led to the creation of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations. He was the founding president of the New Brunswick Student Alliance, a provincial wing of CASA, during which time he authored "Open Doors, Open Minds" and "No More Smoke and Mirrors", two reports which led to his appearing before committees of the House of Commons of Canada and Senate of Canada, and led to a tuition freeze in New Brunswick.
Following graduation from university, Lamrock briefly ran his own law practice before becoming the Director of Policy and Communications for the New Brunswick Healthcare Association in 1998. In 1998 Kelly married Karen Lee, whom he met in university. The two were married at the Wilmot United Church in downtown Fredericton. In 2001, he became Director of Student Affairs at St. Thomas University.
Political career
Though he had often been associated with the New Brunswick New Democratic Party and helped write that party's platform for the 1999 provincial election, he soon became active in the New Brunswick Liberal Party. Lamrock chaired the party's policy renewal process in 2001 and was nominated as candidate for Fredericton-Fort Nashwaak under the Liberal banner in 2002.He was elected to the Legislature in the 2003 election and joined the shadow cabinet as co-critic for Education and critic for Post-Secondary Education. In November, following the resignation of veteran Liberal legislator Bernard Richard, Lamrock was given the high-profile role of Opposition House Leader.
Throughout the remainder of the legislative session, Lamrock became one of the most high-profile members of the Liberal caucus and carried several high-profile critic portfolios in addition to his House Leader duties. In 2006, he delivered the opposition reply to the budget due to the absence of the finance critic for a family emergency.
Lamrock was re-elected in a largely redistributed district, though still named Fredericton-Fort Nashwaak, in the 2006 election. Following the election he was named to the cabinet as Minister of Education and was also given responsibilities for the Advisory Council on Youth and the Provincial Capital Commission.
In June 2009, Premier Graham shuffled his cabinet, moving Lamrock to the Social Development portfolio. In January 2010, Lamrock was named Attorney General of New Brunswick.
On September 27, 2010, Lamrock was defeated in the 2010 New Brunswick Provincial election, losing his seat to Progressive Conservative candidate Pam Lynch.
MLA for Fredericton-Fort Nashwaak
During the 2006 provincial election Lamrock made a number of campaign promises to the constituents of Fredericton - Fort Nashwaak. Many of these promises related to issues that had been largely ignored by both Conservative and Liberal governments for years and, in some cases, decades.The Marysville Bypass
The construction of a bypass system that would direct traffic around the community of Marysville had been a major issue of contention for nearly 30 years.The bypass issue first emerged decades ago as the federal government began removing railway corridors that connected Fredericton and southwestern New Brunswick with central and northern regions of the province. In the absence of rail connections, automobile traffic increased along New Brunswick Route 8; much of that increase was transport trucks. Speed limits along Route 8 decrease quickly as the highway runs through the community of Marysville, serving as its Main Street. Many motorists and truckers do not adjust their speed limits and this has led to a number of serious accidents which compromised the safety of local residents.
Over the years, members of the community had organized to place pressure on the provincial government to build a bypass that would merge Route 8 with the old Trans-Canada highway alignment thereby redirecting traffic around the community and not through it. Despite community pressure on both Conservative and Liberal governments the Marysville bypass issue continued to be put on the back burner.
During the 2006 election campaign, Lamrock promised his constituents that the long sought after Marysville bypass would be constructed if he were elected to a Liberal government under Shawn Graham. On July 23, 2008, the first bucketful of soil was turned by an excavator, marking the beginning of the construction project and the end of the community's long fight to have it constructed.
The Marysville bypass project is funded through a federal-provincial partnership and enjoyed the support of all MLAs whose ridings share Route 8 to northern New Brunswick. The entire project, which is part of a much larger infrastructure improvement project in New Brunswick, was slated to be completed by 2015.
Fredericton Community College
During his time in Opposition Lamrock took up the fight for the construction of a new community college in Fredericton. Once in power he continued to lobby his own government to construct a new campus to support the city's local tradespeople. Ultimately he was successful in his campaign to see the project realized, as Minister of Finance Greg Byrne announced in the 2009 budget released December 1 that construction would begin in January 2010 on a new community college campus in the city. "The $15-million facility, to be located on the University of New Brunswick campus, will cover 4,840 square metres and accommodate programs in health, business administration, information technology, engineering technology and social services."Cliffe Street Ramp
When constructed in 1981, the Westmorland Street bridge was built without a ramp on to Devonshire Drive. The "missing ramp", as it became known locally, remained a local irritant for citizens and the municipal government for years as it had been promised but continuously put off. In the 2006 campaign Lamrock campaigned on a promise to get the Cliffe Street ramp constructed. In March 2007 the Graham government announced funding for the project.The project is now completed and includes an off-ramp onto Devonshire Drive that connects to Cliffe Street and Union Street. Major upgrades were made to the intersections at Cliffe Street and Union Street as well as to the intersection at Union Street and St. Mary's Street. St. Mary's Street has been made a provincially designated truck route, in an effort to minimize truck traffic in nearby residential neighbourhoods west of St. Mary's Street and along Main Street.
Investments in North Side recreation facilities
In 2007 Lamrock announced funding had been approved for the construction of playgrounds in Pepper Creek and Noonan. These communities have seen significant growth, particularly among young families. These two communities had originally asked the provincial government for playgrounds in 1999, but the Bernard Lord government did not move forward on the projects.The Willie O'Ree hockey rink has been open since 2008, and the Royals Field has been refurbished as well.
Princess Margaret Bridge repairs
Lamrock successfully lobbied his government and Minister of Transportation Denis Landry for repairs to the Princess Margaret Bridge. The project began in 2009 after a 10 kilogram piece of concrete fell from the structure onto the roadway beneath. On January 12, 2010, the Department of Transportation announced that $30 million would be spent on upgrading and repairing the 52-year-old iconic structure in 2010-2011.Minister of Education
Lamrock was named Minister of Education by Premier Shawn Graham in October 2006 after winning the Provincial General Election on September 27, 2006. He served as Minister of Education until Premier Graham's first major cabinet shuffle in June 2009. As Minister of Education, Lamrock instituted a number of policies aimed at re-orienting New Brunswick's educational system towards the realities of the globalized information economy."When Kids Come First"
was Lamrock's five-year plan to accomplish what he saw as the necessary challenges facing the New Brunswick education system. Lamrock's vision was adopted by the Graham government as an integral part of the Liberal government's self-sufficiency agenda. "When Kids Come First" laid out three primary objectives:- Every child will arrive at kindergarten ready to learn.
- Every child will leave Grade 5 having mastered the tools to learn - reading, writing and numeracy.
- Every child will graduate from high school having had the opportunity to discover his or her personal strengths and to find something he or she loves doing.
"In the future, companies will be able to move quickly to where the best trained employees are. If our kids don't read, write or do math well enough to learn new skills in a world of constant change, the jobs will move somewhere else - somewhere that did a better job of teaching them.
One of the skills most in demand will be the ability to solve problems. Following instructions will be work done in low wage economies, or by machines. The people who control their economic future will be the kids who went through school solving problems and challenging themselves, not just following orders".
"When Kids Come First" recognized that the educational system in New Brunswick was built on a pedagogical structure that was being challenged by the realities and demands of a globalized economy. Without question Lamrock's plan created some controversy as he began to implement his vision.