Edward Gerald Byrne OC (23 July 1912 – 14 May 2003) was a New Brunswick lawyer and politician, who was made King's Counsel and Member of the Order of Canada.
[1][2] Byrne was born to medical doctor Thomas Ives and Rita Ross in Chatham, New Brunswick on 23 July 1912.
[3] Already a practicing lawyer, Byrne rose to the rank of Flight Commander in the RCAF during his two years' service in the Second World War.
[1][6] Byrne chaired the New Brunswick Royal Commission on Finance and Municipal Taxation whose 1,000-page report,[7] tabled in November 1963,[8] was instrumental in the development of the Université de Moncton,[9] and led to the adoption of the province's Equal Opportunity Programme, which revolutionised the financial and social policies of the province:[7] It advocated tax reform, the end of county governments, central responsibility for education, health, hospitals, social welfare and justice, and the trimming of school districts from 422 to 60.
[8] Premier Bernard Lord said in his condolences that:[9] Byrne will go down in history as one of the architects of modern New Brunswick.An earlier writer considered the Report and Programme as hauling[10] New Brunswick society kicking and screaming into the twentieth century.Byrne was at one point or another appointed a director of the Bank of Canada, Consolidated Bathurst Pulp and Paper Ltd., Gotaas Larsen Shipping,[1] Brunswick Mines and Noranda, among others.