F. L. (Ted) Morton

B.A. (Colorado College), M.A., Ph.D (U of Toronto)
Comparative judicial process, constitutional law and civil liberties in Canada, United States and France

BOOKS INCLUDE: The Charter Revolution and the Court Party, with Rainer Knopff; Morgentaler v. Borowoski: Abortion, The Charter and the Courts;, Charter Politics, with Rainer Knopff; Law, Politics and the Judicial Process in Canada; and Federalism and the Charter: Leading Constitutional Decisions: A New Edition, with Peter Russell and Rainer Knopff. Convenor of Research Committee on Comparative Judicial Studies Group (International Political Science Association). Recipient of 1995 Bora Laskin Fellowship in Human Rights Research

POLITICS:

In June, 2004, Ted won the Progressive Conservative Party’s nomination for the new constituency of Foothills-Rocky View (west of Calgary), and in November of the same year was elected its first MLA winning 62% of the votes cast.

Since his election, Ted has been appointed Chairman of the Regulatory Review Secretariat, a member of the Public Accounts Committee and a member of the Select Committee for Review of the Conflict of Interests Act. He also sits on the Government Caucus’ Standing Policy Committee (SPC) responsible for Energy, Environment and Sustainable Resources. In June, 2005, the Calgary Herald gave Ted the highest grade of all new Calgary-area MLAs and rated him “Most likely to succeed.”

Before entering provincial politics, Ted was a vocal critic of the Meech Lake (1987) and Charlottetown (1992) Accords. He was an early supporter of the Reform Party. In 1998, Ted won the Reform Party nomination for the Alberta Senate election and was one of the two Senators-in-waiting elected by Albertans. In 2001, Ted worked in Ottawa as the parliamentary Director of Policy and Research for the Canadian Alliance Party. That same year, he was one of a group of concerned Albertans who authored the “Alberta Agenda,” a manifesto that calls on Alberta to use all of its constitutional powers to reduce the influence of the Federal government on the lives and pocketbooks of Albertans. In 2003, Ted spoke on the “More Alberta, Less Ottawa” agenda at town-hall meetings and service club luncheons across Alberta.

ALBERTA: 1978-2004

In 1981, Ted received an offer from the University of Calgary and the Mortons moved to Alberta. For the past 23 years, Ted has taught in the political science department at the U of C. He was promoted to Full Professor in 1992. Bambi has taught French and other subjects for the Calgary Board of Education since 1993. Their three children attended French-immersion schools in the Catholic system and were actively involved in minor hockey, baseball, and Young Canadians. Ted coached baseball teams for Bowridge Little League for seven years and also Varsity Community Association. Ted and Bambi became Canadian citizens in 1993. The Mortons are members of St. Pius parish in Calgary. In 1990-92 Ted served as Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee of St. Mary’s College.

Ted has published five books and over fifty scholarly articles. Two of his books have won awards—the 1992 Alberta Writers’ Guild award for the Best Non-Fiction book and runner-up for the 2001 Donner Book Prize for the best book on Canadian public policy. Ted was a co-founder of the Canadian Law and Society Association in the 1980s and served as an elected officer in the International Political Science Association from 1991 to 2000. He speaks French as well as English, and has been a Visiting Professor at universities in France, Quebec, Australia, Colorado and Connecticut. In 1995 Ted was the recipient of the Bora Laskin Fellowship in Human Rights and in 2001 was listed in MacLean’s Magazine as one of the most popular professors at the U of C. Ted’s political columns have appeared regularly in the National Post, the Calgary Herald, the Globe and Mail and the Calgary Sun.

TORONTO: 1973-78

From 1973 to 1978, the Mortons lived in Toronto, where Ted studied at the University of Toronto and received his Masters and Ph.D. in political economy. Their first two children were born in Toronto. In 1978, he accepted a teaching position at Assumption College outside of Boston.

UNIVERSITY AND EUROPE: 1967-73
In 1971, Ted graduated with a B.A. (and Phi Beta Kappa honours) from Colorado College. During university, Ted was active in the anti-Vietnam war effort; co-founded a campus wing of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); and was president of his fraternity. He spent his third year of university studying in Aix-en-Provence, France where he met his future wife, Bambi. After graduation, Bambi and Ted traveled and worked in Europe for 18 months, including six months on a kibbutz in Israel. (Ted jokes that working on a kibbutz cured him forever of Sixties-style socialism.)

BEGINNINGS: 1949-1967

Ted Morton was born in Los Angeles in 1949 and moved to Wyoming in 1952, where his father worked in the oil and gas exploration business. Growing up in Wyoming, Ted developed his life-long love for the outdoors, and still actively enjoys skiing, hiking, hunting and fishing.