The Honourable Roger Simmons (born June 3 1939) is a public policy consultant and former politician and diplomat.

Now based at the Vancouver, British Columbia firm of Gowlings, Simmons is originally from Newfoundland and Labrador where he was an active politician for many years.

Simmons was born in the town of Lewisporte. 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 becoming principal of Grant Collegiate and superintendent of the Green Bay Integrated School Board.

He entered politics in 1973 with his election to the Newfoundland House of Assembly as the Liberal Party of Newfoundland MHA for Hermitage. He was re-elected in 1975 as MHA for Burgeo-Bay D'Espoir in 1975. In 1979 he resigned his provincial seat and was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1979 Canadian election as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Burin—St. George’s . Following the 1980 Canadian 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 but had to resign eleven days later after learning that he was being investigated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for failing to file an income tax return threby setting the record for the shortest federal Cabinet career in Canadian history.

Simmons lost his seat in the 1984 Canadian election but 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 Canadian election and represented Canada at the Rio Summit in 1992. Simmons was re-elected in 1993 before being defeated in the 1997 Canadian election by Progressive Conservative Bill Matthews.

In 1998 he was appointed Consul General for Canada in Seattle serving in that position for five years before moving to Vancouver and joining Gowlings.

External links

• Roger Simmons biography from the Gowlings website