Jon Stanhope

Donald Jonathon " Jon" Stanhope ( born April 29, 1951 in Gundagai, New South Wales) is an Australian politician. A member of the Australian Labor Party was from November 2001 to May 2011 Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT ), and thus also mayor of the capital Canberra.

Although Stanhope grew up in New South Wales, but moved to Canberra to study law at the Australian National University. In 1988 he was elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly ( Legislative Council ) and was gone from the very beginning opposition leader. In 2001 he took office as the Chief Minister after the Labour Party won the elections 8 of 17 seats, and the strongest party had become. Three years later, Stanhope was confirmed in office when his party with an additional seat win secured an absolute majority. On 12 May 2011 he announced his retirement; his successor was his former deputy Katy Gallagher.