Brian Tobin

Brian Vincent Tobin (born October 21, 1954) is a Canadian businessman and former politician. Tobin served as the sixth premier of Newfoundland from 1996 to 2000. Tobin was also a prominent Member of Parliament and served as a cabinet minister in Jean Chrétien's Liberal government. Early life, education, and family Tobin was born in Stephenville, Newfoundland. He studied political science at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's. He worked a brief stint as a TV news announcer with NBC (now NTV) before joining the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador as a political aide to former federal Member of Parliament (MP) and federal cabinet minister Don Jamieson. Tobin is married to Jodean (Smith) and they have three children: Heather, Adam, and Jack. Political career Tobin was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada as a Liberal in the 1980 election. He was re-elected in the 1984 election even though Brian Mulroney's, Progressive Conservative Party (PC) won the largest majority government in Canadian history. It was at this time however that Tobin gained prominence as a member of the "Rat Pack", which was the nickname given to a group of young, high-profile Canadian Liberal opposition MPs during Mulroney's government.