British Parliament (1974-1999) He was leader of the
Labour Party Group on
Stirling District Council in 1974 and, in October of that year, was elected as Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for
West Stirlingshire. Following boundary changes, he was MP for
Falkirk West from 1983 to 2000. He was Chair of the
Scottish Parliamentary Labour Group from 1980 to 1981. In 1975, he tried introducing a bill to abolish
corporal punishment in schools and his efforts formed part of the case presented to the
European Commission of Human Rights which led eventually to abolition. He voted against the
Blair Government's proposals to cut benefits for children of
lone parents, abolish student grants and introduce
tuition fees. A keen sports enthusiast, he was founder and Convener of the Scottish Sports Group at Westminster and the Cross-Party Sports Group in the
Scottish Parliament. He has completed a marathon in less than three hours and the
Ben Nevis Race in just over two hours. He won a gold medal, playing for Scotland in the British Universities Football Championships in 1967. In his book
The Final Whistle?,
Harry Reid claims that Canavan took part in the
1977 Wembley pitch invasion after Scotland beat England and ripped up a patch of the turf. He takes an active interest in
international affairs and served as a member of the House of Commons
select committees on
Foreign Affairs and
International Development. He is still a member of the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and
Amnesty International and is interested in
conflict resolution. He chaired the Northern Ireland Committee of the
Parliamentary Labour Party from 1989 to 1997, and led several parliamentary delegations to Ireland during
The Troubles. He served on the
British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body from 1992 to 2000. As a member of the European and External Relations Committee of the Scottish Parliament, he was author of a report on the potential for co-operation between
Scotland and Ireland. He has frequently spoken out against
sectarianism and racism.
Scottish Parliament (1999–2007) Throughout his political life, Canavan played a leading part in the
campaign for a Scottish Parliament. When Labour was in opposition under
James Callaghan,
Michael Foot,
Neil Kinnock,
John Smith and
Tony Blair, he led a nationwide consultation about
devolution, on behalf of the
Scottish Group of Labour MPs, leading to the publication of a
bill to establish a Scottish Parliament with revenue-raising powers. However, in 1999, when the
first elections to the Scottish Parliament were held, the
New Labour leadership rejected him as an official Labour candidate, despite the fact that he had the support of 97% of
local party members. He therefore stood as an
Independent, and was consequently expelled from the party. Although there were rumours he would join the
Scottish National Party, he did not join another party. He won with almost 55 percent of the vote, the highest majority of any MSP in the
1999 election. He resigned his Westminster seat in 2000 to concentrate on representing his constituents in the Scottish Parliament. Canavan retained his
Holyrood seat in 2003 with 55.7 percent of the vote, again with the biggest majority in Scotland. In the Scottish Parliament, he was a member of the European and External Relations Committee and Convener of the All-Party Sports Group from 1999. In 2003 he criticised the
Scottish football authorities when
Falkirk Football Club was refused promotion to the
Scottish Premier League, despite having won the First Division Championship. He supported Falkirk's efforts to build a new stadium for community use and he still regularly attends the club's matches. He is also Honorary President of Milton Amateurs Football Club. Canavan enjoys hill-walking and, in the Scottish Parliament, he championed the people's right of access to the countryside, successfully introducing amendments to the
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill to extend the right of access to country estates, including land belonging to the Queen. He is now President of
Ramblers Scotland. He is a strong supporter of the idea of a
national holiday to celebrate
St Andrew's Day, and his bill to achieve this was eventually passed as the
St. Andrew's Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Act 2007. ==Retirement from politics==