Brian David Mason (born October 12, 1953) is a Canadian politician who was leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party from 2004 to 2014 and served the Minister of Transportation in Rachel Notley's NDP government. He also served as the Government House Leader. Mason was first elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for the now-defunct riding of Edmonton Highlands in a 2000 byelection. He was subsequently re-elected, and was elected in Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood after the riding was created in 2004. He chose not to seek re-election in 2019, and was succeeded by Janis Irwin. Mason was the longest serving NDP MLA in Alberta history, with a political career spanning more than 20 years. Early political involvement Mason was born in Calgary in 1953, the son of an electrical engineer. His father was a Red Tory who later helped found the Reform Party of Canada while his mother was a Liberal. Mason first became politically active in the mid-1970s while studying political science at the University of Alberta. He served as executive director of the Federation of Alberta Students from 1977 to 1979. While there he boarded at the traditionally Tory fraternity Phi Gamma Delta and was roommates with future Progressive Conservative Premier Dave Hancock, who teased him by calling him a communist. Upon leaving university Mason began working as bus driver with the Edmonton Transit Service. Municipal politics Mason first ran for Edmonton city council after he was temporarily laid off from ETS in 1983, before becoming president of the Edmonton Voters Association, a municipal political party. He tried again for a seat on the council in 1989 with a dynamic campaign running in Ward 3. Mason's campaign came with a legal challenge he mounted against a provincial law forbidding municipal employees from running as candidates in a civic election unless they resigned their position with the city. The legal challenge was unsuccessful, however Mason was elected city councillor for Ward 3 in October 1989. Shortly after the election the law Mason challenged was repealed, and municipal workers in Edmonton were subsequently allowed to run for civic office without resigning their positions. Mason remained on city council until 2000, when he ran for political office for the New Democratic Party. Provincial politics In 2000, following the mid-term resignation of then leader of the Alberta New Democrats and MLA for Edmonton Highlands Pam Barrett, Mason left city council