Dan Sullivan (New Zealand politician)

The Honourable Dan Sullivan MP
Dan Sullivan in 1941
13th Minister of Railways
In office 26 November 1935 – 12 December 1941
Prime Minister	Michael Joseph Savage Peter Fraser
Preceded by	George Forbes
Succeeded by	Bob Semple
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Avon
In office 17 December 1919 – 8 April 1947
Preceded by	George Warren Russell
Succeeded by	John Mathison
35th Mayor of Christchurch
In office 1931–1936
Preceded by	Rev. John Archer
Succeeded by	John Beanland
Personal details
Born	18 July 1882 Waltham
Died	8 April 1947(1947-04-08) (aged 64) Lewisham Hospital, Wellington
Nationality	New Zealand
Political party	Labour
Cabinet	Cabinet of New Zealand

Daniel Giles "Dan" Sullivan (18 July 1882 – 8 April 1947) was a New Zealand Member of Parliament, Cabinet Minister and Mayor of Christchurch.

Born in Christchurch in 1882, Sullivan was President/Secretary of the Canterbury French Polishers Union and National Federation of Furniture Trades Unions.

He was a councillor of the Christchurch City Council between 1915–1923 and 1925–1931, and Mayor of Christchurch 1931–1936. When Labour won the 1935 general election and Sullivan took on the heavy workload of a cabinet minister, he reluctantly resigned from the mayoralty in February 1936. He was succeeded as mayor by John Beanland of the Citizens' Association.

Sullivan first stood for Parliament in the 1908 election as a candidate for the Independent Political Labour League in the Avon electorate; he came fourth out of five candidates in the first ballot. The 1908 election was won by George Warren Russell, who would later become a cabinet minister, and was in 1912 considered a possible successor of Joseph Ward as leader of the Liberal Party. In the 1914 election, Sullivan came second out of three candidates in the same electorate, this time standing for the Social Democratic Party, the successor of the IPLL.

In the 1919 election, Russell suffered a crushing defeat by Sullivan. As Minister of Public Health, Russell was held responsible by large parts of the population for New Zealand's unpreparedness for the 1918 flu epidemic. Compared to the 1914 election, Sullivan's share of the vote increased by more than 27 percentage points. He represented the Avon electorate in the House of Representatives for 28 years from 1919 to 1947. During the 1920s Sullivan and Jimmy McCombs led the opposition to Harry Holland within the Parliamentary Labour Party caucus.