BY STEPHEN LLEWELLYN  25 JUN 2013 10:07AM

Andy Scott has died.

The former federal cabinet minister, longtime Fredericton Liberal MP and passionate advocate of education and social justice died Monday night.

There was no word on funeral arrangements early Tuesday morning.

He was 58 and had been suffering from cancer.

Scott was the Liberal MP for Fredericton for 15 years, from 1993 to 2008.

During his time in Ottawa, he served as Minister of State for Infrastructure, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Federal Interlocutor for Metis and non-Status Indians, and Solicitor General.

Scott said those roles made him appreciate the difference good academic research could make when it came to addressing social issues.

“I believe in the need for evidence-based social policy,” he said, in an interview in 2008.

In 1996, Scott chaired a National Task Force on Disability Issues holding public hearings across the country. This led to a report entitled “Equal Citizenship for Canadians with Disabilities — The Will to Act.”

He also drafted a private member’s bill calling for a national strategy on autism services. His work led to improvements in income-tax policies, accessible transportation services and federal funds for many community projects that benefitted people with disabilities.

In 2007 the province awarded Scott with a Disability Awareness Week New Brunswick Award.

Scott was an advocate for open government.

In the fall of 2008, he spoke at a forum at the Hugh John Flemming Forestry Complex and said access to information is essential if people are to make a meaningful decision on matters of importance to the community.

“You need information to be available to the public so that they can be informed, and informed in an engaged way,” he said.

In 2008 Scott abstained from a vote in the House of Commons on extending Canada’s combat mission in Afghanistan.

“I didn’t support the extension (of the mission) in 2007,” he said. “So for me, the test would be whether or not we made enough progress to warrant me changing my vote.”

During his political career, he addressed the United Nations in New York, met former South African president Nelson Mandela and took part in the historic 1995 Unity rally held in Montreal on the eve of the last referendum campaign.

He was also the tie-breaking vote as committee chairman that led to same-sex marriage becoming legal in Canada.

In 2008, at the end of his political career, when he chose not to run again, he said he was most proud of his work on the Kelowna Accord, a 10-year plan to improve living conditions and education in First Nations communities. The Liberal government of Paul Martin lost power before it could be implemented.

Scott served on countless federal Parliamentary committees and was also New Brunswick’s regional minister between 1997 and 1998.

During his time as MP, he was well known for holding public forums on a variety of topics.

He was active on local issues too.

In 2007 he urged the federal government to lobby J. D. Irving to repair the York Street train station. He was involved in the negotiations surrounding the renovations of Government House and the construction of the Leo Hayes High School.

The low point of Scott’s political career was in 1998 when he had to resign from cabinet as Solicitor General over allegations he had prejudged the outcome of a public inquiry into the pepper spraying of APEC protesters in Vancouver.

He was overheard discussing the case by NDP MP Dick Proctor during a commercial plane flight between Fredericton and Ottawa.

The disclosure caused a political scandal.

“I wasn’t able to clarify the situation and essentially, I guess, I was caught in the world of perception,” said Scott, in a 2008 interview. “It wasn’t necessarily around reality.”

Despite the misstep, Scott was re-elected three more times in Fredericton, normally a Conservative stronghold.

In 2003, Scott was briefly hospitalized after he was assaulted by an angry constituent over his government’s backing of same-sex marriage.

Scott returned to cabinet as Minister of State for Infrastructure in late 2003.

After retiring from politics, he became senior fellow in social policy at the University of New Brunswick and executive-director of the New Brunswick Social Policy Research Network.

“The strategy of the network is to ensure the sharing of knowledge between those who do research and those who require research for the purpose of policy-making,” said Scott, at the time.

“This network bridges the gap between those making decisions, those conducting research, and citizens.”

In 2010, Scott co-chaired Learning: Everybody’s Project, a citizen-led initiative focused on fostering and improving the learning culture in New Brunswick.

“We want to have a conversation with the people of New Brunswick around learning,” he said.

“If we’re going to take New Brunswick to a different place, whether you define that culturally, economically or in terms of social justice, learning is the ticket.”

He was born in Barkers Point in 1955, educated in the Fredericton public school system and earned an honours degree in sociology from the University of New Brunswick.

Scott was pursuing his master’s degree in sociology and already had a year of studies under his belt when then-opposition Liberal leader Joe Daigle recruited him to become a researcher for the Liberal Party.

“At the time, the department wasn’t happy about people leaving without finishing their degree,” he said, in a 2008 interview in his new office at UNB.

“I did tell them I’d be back. I left them with the impression I would be back sooner, and I thought I would come back sooner.”

Politics was in his blood. He served as the president of the New Brunswick Young Liberal Association, executive-director of the Liberal Party and senior policy adviser to Premier Frank McKenna.

He was 38 when he ran and won in the riding of Fredericton-York-Sunbury, taking the seat from Progressive Conservative incumbent J. W. (Bud) Bird.

His first wife was Pat Hawkins of Stanley and together they had two children: Nathan and Nicholas.

Scott married Denise Cameron in 1999. They both grew up in Barkers Point only five houses apart from each other. He was 14 years older than her. They have one son, Noah.

When he announced he was not running again, he said the travel involved with being an MP was hard on a young family.

“At the end of the day, my sense as I retire is one of gratitude to the people of Fredericton,” he said, in 2008. “It’s been an incredible opportunity.”