Kenneth Gardner Hughes ECA (born 11 February 1954) is a Canadian politician. He served as a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 1993. Later he was chair of Alberta Health Services from 2008 to 2011, before being elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in 2012. He served in the provincial cabinet first as Energy minister, then as Municipal Affairs minister until resigning on 7 April 2014 to enter the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta leadership election. Hughes withdrew his candidacy on 12 May 2014 in order to endorse the eventual winner, Jim Prentice and resigned from the legislature on 29 September 2014.^[1]

Hughes holds an undergraduate degree in agriculture from the University of Alberta. He also has a master's in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (1981-1983) with a focus on public and corporate finance.^[2]

Hughes represented the Alberta riding of Macleod which he won in the 1988 federal election. Hughes served one term in the 34th Canadian Parliament after which he was defeated by Grant Hill of the Reform party in the 1993 election.

Following his departure from federal politics, Hughes was appointed as board chairman for the Headwaters Health Authority, a role he filled from 1994 to 1995. He was appointed as the founding chairman of Alberta Health Services on 15 May 2008 and served in this role until 2011.^[2][3]

Hughes left Alberta Health Services and ran for the Progressive Conservative nomination in Calgary-West that was held after incumbent Ron Liepert announced his retirement. He was defeated by former MLA Shiraz Shariff. Controversy would ensue as the nomination results were overturned by the party due to complaints and uncited irregularities. A second nomination meeting was held, which Hughes won.^[4]

Hughes won the Calgary-West seat during the 23 April 2012 election. Hughes was appointed to Cabinet by Premier Redford to the post of Minister of Energy. Following the Cabinet shuffle in November 2013, Hughes was asked to serve as the Minister of Municipal Affairs, resigning in April 2014 to run for party leader. While he was expected to be a frontrunner, he dropped out prior to the opening of nominations due to lack of support and endorsed Jim Prentice. He resigned from the Legislature on 29 September 2014.^[1]