Former federal cabinet minister and Alberta premier Jim Prentice, 1956-2016

Outpouring of condolences for Prentice Rahim Ladhani reports on the outpouring of support for the Prentice family following the fatal plane crash.

Jim Prentice, Alberta’s 16th Premier and former federal cabinet minister, died in a plane crash north of Kelowna on Thursday night.

The Ontario-born businessman and lawyer was on board a flight from Kelowna to Springbank, Alberta, on Thursday night.

He was flying with three other people when ground crews lost contact with the jet shortly after takeoff.

The wreckage was located near Lake Country, northeast of Winfield, around midnight.

Prentice was born in Ontario but moved with his family to Alberta when he was 13.

He attended the University of Alberta and Dalhousie University, obtaining a law degree.

He joined the Progressive Conservatives back in 1976 and worked as the federal PC party’s chief financial officer and treasurer in the 90s.

He first ran for a seat back in 1986 in Calgary-Mountain View, but lost to the NDP’s Bob Hawkesworth.

It wasn’t until the 2004 election that Prentice won his own seat, in Calgary-Centre North, with the Conservative Party after many years of failed campaigns.

Shortly after being sworn-in, then-leader Stephen Harper named Prentice to the Shadow Cabinet as the Official Opposition Critic for Indian and Northern Affairs.

Once Harper took over as Prime Minister, Prentice assumed the post of Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development.

Prentice also served as Harper’s Minister of Industry, Minister of Western Economic Diversification and Minister of Environment.

In November 2010, Prentice announced his resignation as Environment Minister and took a position at CIBC.

On May 15, 2014, Prentice announced that he would be returning to politics by entering Alberta’s PC leadership race. He won the race the following September.

The following year, on April 7, 2015, Prentice called for an early election to seek a new mandate in order to pass his party’s budget.

The 2015 provincial election proved costly to the Alberta PCs and Prentice’s political career. It marked the end of the PC’s 44-year run and left the party with just 10 seats, behind the Wildrose Party and the NDP.

Prentice resigned as leader and gave up his seat soon after the defeat.

After losing, Prentice joined Washington, D.C. think-tank the Wilson Center. He planned to write a book on energy and environmental issues, according to The Canadian Press.

He leaves behind his wife Karen and three children.

(With files from CTVNews.ca)