Kenneth Gardner Hughes (born February 11, 1954) is a Canadian politician. He served as a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 1993. Later he was chair of Alberta Health Services from 2008 to 2011, before being elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in 2012. He served in the provincial cabinet first as Energy minister, then as Municipal Affairs minister until resigning on April 7, 2014 to enter the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta leadership election. Hughes withdrew his candidacy on May 12, 2014, to endorse the eventual winner, Jim Prentice and resigned from the legislature on September 29, 2014.
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Early life
Hughes holds an undergraduate degree in agriculture from the University of Alberta. He also has a masters in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (1981-1983) with a focus on public and corporate finance.
Federal career
Hughes represented the Alberta riding of Macleod which he won in the 1988 federal election. Hughes served one term in the 34th Canadian Parliament after which he was defeated by Grant Hill of the Reform party in the 1993 election.