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Lowell Murray, PC (born 26 September 1936) in New Waterford, Nova Scotia, Canada is a Senator and long time activist with the Progressive Conservative party in Canada.
Murray graduated from St. Francis Xavier University in 1955. He met 16-year-old Brian Mulroney there; the two became close friends and associates in the PC Party (Brian Mulroney: The Politics of Ambition, by John Sawatsky, 1991). He later earned an MPA from Queen's University
He was appointed to the Senate on the recommendation of Prime Minister Joe Clark in 1979. In 1986, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed Murray to the Cabinet as Leader of the Government in the Senate, and variously as Minister of State for Federal-Provincial Relations (until April 21, 1991), Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (June 1987 to September 1988), and Acting Minister of Communications (December 1988 to 30 January 1989). Murray served as Government Leader in the Senate until the defeat of the government of Prime Minister Kim Campbell in 1993.
In 2003, Murray joined with Joe Clark to oppose the merger of the Progressive Conservative Party with the Canadian Alliance to form the Conservative Party of Canada. When the new party was created, he refused to join the new Conservative caucus, and remains one of three Senators (the others being Elaine McCoy and Norman Atkins) who continue to sit as "Progressive Conservatives" even though the federal Progressive Conservative Party has been formally dissolved. Murray is scheduled to retire from the Senate in 2011.
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