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Gordon Churchill

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Gordon Minto Churchill
Churchill, c. 1940s
Minister of National Defence
In office
February 12, 1963 – April 21, 1963
Prime MinisterJohn Diefenbaker
Preceded byVacant
Succeeded byPaul Hellyer
Member of Parliament
for Winnipeg South Centre
In office
June 25, 1951 – June 24, 1968
Preceded byRalph Maybank
Succeeded byEdmund Boyd Osler
Personal details
Born(1898-11-08)November 8, 1898
Coldwater, Ontario, Canada
DiedAugust 3, 1985(1985-08-03) (aged 86)
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada[1]
Military service
Allegiance Canada
Years of service1916-1919
1939-1945
RankGunner
Lieutenant Colonel

Gordon Minto Churchill PC DSO (November 8, 1898 – August 3, 1985) was a Canadian politician. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1946 to 1949 as an independent, and in the House of Commons of Canada from 1951 to 1968 as a Progressive Conservative. He served in the cabinet of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker.[2]

Early life

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The son of J. W. Churchill and Mary Shier, Churchill was educated in Port Arthur, Ontario, at United College in Winnipeg and at the University of Manitoba, where he received a Master of Arts degree and a law degree. He worked as a teacher and school principal, and served as president of the Manitoba Teachers' Society.[3] He belonged to the law firm of Haig and Haig, which was founded by the family of Conservative politician John Thomas Haig. In 1922, he married Mona Mary McLachlin.[1]

Military service

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Churchill saw action in both World Wars. He served overseas in World War I from 1916 to 1919 operating a Vickers Machine Gun. During World War II, he served with the Fort Garry Horse, the 12th Manitoba Dragoons, the Elgin Regiment and 1st Canadian Carrier Regiment in Northwestern Europe.[2] In 1945, he was appointed Dean of Faculty at Khaki University in England.

Political career

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Churchill's political career began in January 1946, when he was elected to the Manitoba legislature in a special by-election for Manitobans in the Canadian Army, who had not been able to cast ballots in the 1945 provincial election.[4] Although he had ties to the Progressive Conservative Party, he served in the legislature as an independent. He resigned from the Manitoba legislature in 1949 to run for the Canadian House of Commons in the riding of Winnipeg South Centre. He finished a distant second to incumbent Liberal candidate Ralph Maybank. Maybank resigned two years later, and Churchill ran in the ensuing by-election, which he won by less than 800 votes. He was returned by greater margins in the 1953 and 1957 general elections.

Churchill was a key adviser to Progressive Conservative Party leader John Diefenbaker during this period, and was widely credited with developing the strategy that propelled the Tories to victory in 1957. The Liberal Party of Louis St. Laurent had been in power since 1935, and appeared to have strong popular support. Prior to the 1957 election, Churchill wrote a confidential paper arguing that the Progressive Conservative Party could form government by targeting seats in the English-speaking provinces, and did not need to invest resources in Quebec. Diefenbaker followed this strategy, and won a minority government in 1957.

Queen Elizabeth and members of the federal government of Canada in Ottawa 1957-10-14

Churchill was appointed to Diefenbaker's cabinet on June 21, 1957 as Minister of Trade and Commerce.[2] Later in the year, he led a 57-member trade delegation to the United Kingdom, touring firms throughout the country.

The Progressive Conservatives were re-elected with a large majority in the 1958 federal election; Churchill defeated his nearest opponent in Winnipeg South Centre by almost 20,000 votes. Churchill gave approval in 1959 for Canada's first commercial power nuclear reactor, a CANDU design, to be built at Douglas Point, Ontario. He also served as acting Leader of the Government in the House of Commons from January 14 to September 10, 1960, and was confirmed in this position on October 17, 1960. On October 11, he was named Minister of Veterans Affairs.[2]

The Progressive Conservatives were reduced to a minority government in the 1962 federal election; Churchill's majority in Winnipeg South Center shrank to 2,000 votes. On February 12, 1963, he was promoted to Minister of National Defence. He had served only two months in this position when the Progressive Conservatives were defeated in the 1963 federal election; Churchill was personally re-elected with an even smaller majority. He served as Opposition House Leader in the Parliament which followed.[2] In the 1965 federal election, which the Progressive Conservatives also lost, Churchill retained his seat by about 2,000 votes.

During the flag debates of the 1960s, Churchill referred to the flag which was eventually approved as a "piece of bunting". The Ottawa Citizen quoted him describing Prime Minister Lester Pearson as "a sawdust Caesar, reminding me of Mussolini, trying to force the country to accept his personal choice for a flag."[5]

Churchill remained loyal to John Diefenbaker during the Progressive Conservative Party's internal quarrels of the 1960s, and worked for Diefenbaker at the party's 1967 leadership convention. When Diefenbaker dropped out of the race, he sent Churchill as an emissary to Dufferin Roblin's camp to endorse Roblin.[6] In February 1968, Churchill attacked new Progressive Conservative leader Robert Stanfield for not forcing an election when the Liberal government of Lester Pearson was unexpectedly defeated in the house.

He left the Progressive Conservative caucus on February 27, 1968 to sit as an Independent Progressive Conservative,[7] and did not run for re-election in the 1968 campaign.

Archives

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There is a Gordon Churchill fonds at Library and Archives Canada.[8]

Electoral history

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1965 Canadian federal election: Winnipeg South Centre
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Gordon Churchill 15,296 41.8 −0.7
Liberal Fred Douglas 13,262 36.3 −3.2
New Democratic Philip Petursson 7,234 19.8 +4.8
Social Credit Walter Hatch 764 2.1 −0.9
Total valid votes 36,556 100.0
1963 Canadian federal election: Winnipeg South Centre
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Gordon Churchill 17,092 42.6 −0.4
Liberal Fred Douglas 15,849 39.5 +2.3
New Democratic Alistair Stewart 6,011 15.0 −1.5
Social Credit Harold Bathgate 1,182 2.9 −0.4
Total valid votes 40,134 100.0
1962 Canadian federal election: Winnipeg South Centre
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Gordon Churchill 16,547 43.0 −23.6
Liberal Ed Russenholt 14,306 37.2 +18.1
New Democratic A.N. Robertson 6,357 16.5 +2.2
Social Credit Asta Oddson 1,298 3.4
Total valid votes 38,508 100.0

Note: NDP vote is compared to CCF vote in 1958 election.

1958 Canadian federal election: Winnipeg South Centre
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Gordon Churchill 27,722 66.6 +16.5
Liberal Ronald Gillies 7,927 19.0 –6.2
Co-operative Commonwealth Gordon Fines 5,975 14.4 –3.5
Total valid votes 41,624 100.0
1957 Canadian federal election: Winnipeg South Centre
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Gordon Churchill 19,022 50.1
Liberal Roy Richardson 9,592 25.3
Co-operative Commonwealth A. H. Mackling 6,778 17.9
Social Credit Asa Caswell 2,561 6.7
Total valid votes 37,953 100.0
1953 Canadian federal election: Winnipeg South Centre
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Gordon Churchill 12,489 42.7 −0.9
Liberal A.W. Hanks 9,752 33.3 −4.9
Co-operative Commonwealth Gordon R. Fines 6,506 22.2 +4.1
Labor–Progressive Roland Penner 504 1.7
Total valid votes 29,251 100.0
Canadian federal by-election, 25 June 1951
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
On Mr. Maybank's resignation, 30 April 1951
Progressive Conservative Gordon Churchill 6,009 43.6 +19.2
Liberal Norman Wright 5,273 38.3 -16.4
Co-operative Commonwealth Charles Biesick 2,497 18.1 -2.8
Total valid votes 13,779 100.0
1949 Canadian federal election: Winnipeg South Centre
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Ralph Maybank 14,747 54.7 +10.7
Progressive Conservative Gordon Minto Churchill 6,593 24.4 +1.7
Co-operative Commonwealth Andrew N. Robertson 5,632 20.9 −12.4
Total valid votes 26,972 100.0

References

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  1. ^ a b "Gordon Churchill". Canada Veterans Hall of Valour.
  2. ^ a b c d e Gordon Churchill – Parliament of Canada biography
  3. ^ "Gordon Minto Churchill (1898-1985)". Memorable Manitobans. Manitoba Historical Society. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
  4. ^ "MLA Biographies - Deceased". Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. Archived from the original on 30 March 2014.
  5. ^ "Lester Pearson and the Flag, 1960-1964". Canada's Flag. Library and Archives Canada.
  6. ^ "The Roblin plan that misfired". Leader-Post. 29 September 1965. p. 27.
  7. ^ "Stanfield facing first unity test". Windsor Star. 28 February 1968. p. 35.
  8. ^ "Finding aid to Gordon Churchill fonds, Library and Archives Canada" (PDF). Retrieved 31 August 2020.
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