Career
He lost his seat to the Democratic Unionist Party in the 1981 local elections but regained it at the 1985 local elections and has been re-elected at each local election since then He served as Mayor from 1992 to 1993
Dickson unsuccessfully contested the East Antrim constituency at the 1996 Northern Ireland Forum election and the Assembly elections of 1998, 2003 and 2007, before winning the seat held by former Alliance leader Sean Neeson at the 2011 elections. He was recently elected chair of the Assembly all Party Group on Social Enterprise.
He has served as Captain of First Greenisland Boys’ Brigade, through which he has run drug awareness courses, he is a former long serving member and chair of the Boards of Governors of Carrickfergus Central and Silverstream Primary Schools.
Prior to his election to the Northen Ireland Assembly he worked as Arbitration Secretary at the Northern Ireland Labour Relations Agency.