Roger Simmons

rdf:langString Roger Simmons

rdf:langString Member of Parliament from Burin—St. George's

rdf:langString Roger Cyril Simmons, PC (born June 3, 1939) is a Canadian public policy consultant and former politician and diplomat. Simmons is originally from Newfoundland and Labrador where he was an active politician for many years. He was later based at the Vancouver, British Columbia office of the Gowlings law firm. The son of Willis Simmons and Ida Williams, he was born in Lewisporte, Newfoundland. After studying at the Salvation Army College for Officers, the Memorial University of Newfoundland, and Boston University, Simmons became a teacher in Newfoundland's Salvation Army school system. (At the time, the Salvation Army, along with other denominations, ran its own publicly funded schools.) He subsequently moved to Springdale to become principal of Grant Collegiate and superintendent of the Green Bay Integrated School Board. Simmons married Miriam Jean Torgerson. He became president of the Newfoundland Teachers' Association in 1968 but resigned to run unsuccessfully for the leadership of the Newfoundland Liberal party. In 1973, he was elected to the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly as the Liberal Member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for Hermitage. He was re-elected in 1975 as MHA for Burgeo-Bay D'Espoir. In 1979, he resigned his provincial seat and was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1979 federal election as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Burin—St. George's. Following the 1980 election, he became parliamentary secretary to the Minister of the Environment, and then parliamentary secretary to the Minister of State for Science and Technology. On August 12, 1983, he was named to the Cabinet of Pierre Trudeau as Minister of State for Mines. He resigned eleven days later after learning that he was being investigated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for failing to file an income tax return. Simmons thereby set the record for the shortest federal Cabinet career in Canadian history. Simmons lost his seat in the 1984 election. In 1985, he returned to the Newfoundland House of Assembly as the provincial Liberal MHA for Fortune-Hermitage, and briefly served as interim Leader of the Opposition. Simmons returned to the federal House of Commons in the 1988 federal election. He represented Canada at the Rio Summit in 1992. Simmons was re-elected in the 1993 election, and defeated in the 1997 election by Progressive Conservative candidate Bill Matthews. In 1998, he was appointed Consul General for Canada in Seattle, and served in that position for five years before moving to Vancouver and joining Gowlings.