Seamus O'Regan


Seamus Thomas Harris O'Regan is a Canadian politician and former television personality from Newfoundland and Labrador. He currently serves as Minister of Natural Resources and formerly served as Minister of Indigenous Services and Minister of Veterans Affairs. He was a correspondent with CTV National News, and a former host of Canada AM, which he co-hosted from 2003 to 2011 with Beverly Thomson.

Early life and education

O'Regan was born in St. John's, Newfoundland and spent 14 years growing up in Goose Bay, graduating from Goose High School. O'Regan is of half Irish descent. His father, also named Seamus O'Regan, was a judge of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador. At the age of 10, O'Regan became a regional correspondent for CBC Radio's Anybody Home?, producing stories that celebrated the unique accomplishments of local residents - a professor hunting for giant squid to one woman's fight against leukemia.
He studied politics at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia and at University College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland. He studied marketing strategies at INSEAD, an international business school near Paris, France. He received his Masters of Philosophy in Politics from the University of Cambridge, studying at Darwin College in Cambridge, England.

Career

He has worked as an assistant to Environment Minister Jean Charest in Ottawa and to Justice Minister Edward Roberts in St. John's, and was policy advisor and speechwriter to the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Brian Tobin.
In 2000, O'Regan joined talktv's current affairs program, the chatroom. He began his duties at Canada AM on December 19, 2001. On November 8, 2011, he announced that he would be leaving Canada AM on November 24, 2011 to become a correspondent for CTV National News. O'Regan left CTV in 2012. Since leaving CTV he has occasionally been a fill-in host on radio station CFRB in Toronto, and worked on independent television productions and as a media innovator in residence at Ryerson University. O'Regan is also the executive vice president for communications of the Stronach Group.

Politics

In September 2014, O'Regan was nominated as the Liberal Party candidate in the Newfoundland and Labrador riding of St. John's South—Mount Pearl for the 2015 federal election. On October 19, 2015, O'Regan won the election, defeating New Democrat incumbent Ryan Cleary. He was appointed to the cabinet on August 28, 2017 as the Minister of Veterans Affairs and on January 14, 2019 was made the Minister of Indigenous Services, vacating his previous post.
He was re-elected in the 2019 federal election. Following the election, he was appointed Minister of Natural Resources.

Personal life

On July 9, 2010, he married his longtime partner, Steve Doussis, in Newfoundland.
O'Regan serves on the Boards of Katimavik, Canada's leading youth service-learning programme, and The Rooms, which houses the provincial art gallery, museum, and archives of Newfoundland and Labrador. He also sits on the board of directors for fellow Newfoundlander Allan Hawco's theatre company, The Company Theatre, located in Toronto.
In January 2016, O’Regan announced that he entered an alcoholism rehabilitation program.
In November 2017, he was hospitalized in Ottawa for a major gastrointestinal obstruction.

Award

In December 1999, O'Regan was named as one of Maclean's 100 Young Canadians to Watch in the 21st century.

Electoral history