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Ralph Edward Goodale (born October 5, 1949, in Regina, Saskatchewan) is Canada's current Minister of Finance.
Goodale was raised on a farm near Wilcox, Saskatchewan, and had lived in the province for his entire life, attending the University of Regina and then obtained a law degree from the University of Saskatchewan.
Active in politics from a young age, he was first elected to the Parliament of Canada in the 1974 election at the age of twenty-four. He served as backbench MP until the 1979 election, when he was defeated. In 1981, he was acclaimed as leader of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party.
He led that party to a very poor showing in the 1982 provincial election, in which the party received few votes and won no seats in the provincial legislature. Goodale himself was the only Liberal candidate to receive a respectable number of votes.
The party bounced back under his leadership to win almost 10% of the vote in the 1986 provincial election, but only Goodale was elected to the legislature. Goodale ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility in this election, arguing that both the Progressive Conservative and New Democrat parties favoured excessive spending policies.
Goodale resigned as leader in to run for the federal Liberal Party in the 1988 election, but he was not elected to represent his riding. Goodale then spent five years in the private sector, serving in senior positions for companies such as the Pioneer Life Assurance Company, Pioneer Lifeco Inc., and Sovereign Life Insurance Co. He eventually ran in the 1993 federal election and was elected to parliament. As a member of the new Chrétien government, Goodale was named Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.
In 1997, he became the Minister of Natural Resources. Goodale maintained a reputation of being honest, and in 2002, he was named Minister of Public Works and Government Services. The Department of Public Works and Government Services had been plagued by scandals.
A close ally of Paul Martin, Jr., Goodale was rewarded with the extremely important role of Finance Minister when Martin became Prime Minister on December 12, 2003.
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