Cliff Cullen is a politician in Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. He was elected to the Manitoba legislature in a by-election, held in the summer of 2004.

Cullen was raised on a farm near Wawanesa

Wawanesa, Manitoba

Wawanesa is a community in Manitoba, Canada. It is the birthplace of the The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Co. The village is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Oakland....

, Manitoba, and subsequently attended the University of Manitoba

University of Manitoba

The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...

, where he received a Diploma in Agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

. He has worked in the agricultural and environmental sectors, and also has experience as an insurance broker.

When Turtle Mountain MLA Mervin Tweed resigned from the provincial legislature in 2004 (to run for the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

), Cullen sought and won the Progressive Conservative

Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba

The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba is the only right wing political party in Manitoba, Canada. It is also the official opposition party in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.-Origins and early years:...

 nomination to succeed him. Turtle Mountain is a safe Progressive Conservative seat, and Cullen was elected with about 60% of the popular vote on June 29, 2004. He was officially sworn in on July 15.

Cullen's main issue during the 2004 campaign was the ongoing crisis in Canada's cattle industry, resulting from a single case of BSE

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy , commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about 30 months to 8 years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of...

 being found in a Canadian cow.

Cullen was re-elected in the 2007 provincial election

Manitoba general election, 2007

The Manitoba general election held on May 22, 2007 was held to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. It was won by the New Democratic Party, which won 36 seats out of 57. The Progressive Conservative Party finished second with nineteen seats. The Liberal...

.