Errick Willis

Errick Willis
Full name	Errick French Willis
birthday	March 21, 1896
date of death	January 9, 1967
Career
nation	Canada
Playing position	Lead
Playing hand	right
Medal table
Olympic medals 1 × 0 × 0 ×
winter Olympics gold 1932 Lake Placid

Errick French Willis (born March 21, 1896 in Boissevain , Manitoba , † January 9, 1967 in Winnipeg ) was a Canadian politician , curler and Olympic champion . In 1932 he took part in the Winter Olympics. For three decades he was politically active at the provincial and federal level. He was chairman of the Manitoba Conservative Party and a member of the Manitoba government for twelve years. From 1960 to 1965 he was lieutenant governor of the province.

biography

Willis studied law at the Universities of Toronto , Alberta and Manitoba . From 1926 he worked as a lawyer in Winnipeg , from 1929 in his native Boissevain. In 1933 he gave up his practice as a lawyer and from then on devoted himself to pig breeding .

Willis was an avid curling player. As the lead of the Canadian team, he took part in the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid in the curling tournament. His team won the Olympic gold medal. Since curling was still a demonstration sport at the time, the medal has no official status.

Willis' political career began when he ran unsuccessfully for the Conservative Party in the 1926 general election. Four years later, in the 1930 general election , he succeeded in entering the federal parliament with a victory in the Souris constituency. After a legislative period, he was voted out of office in the 1935 general election; he missed re-election by just three votes.

Willis' political career at the provincial level was more permanent. In 1936 he was elected chairman of the Manitoba Conservative Party and in the same year he was elected a member of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly in the Deloraine constituency. In 1940 the Conservatives formed a coalition government with the Liberal Progressives under John Bracken . Willis was then Minister for State Building Projects for ten years, and from 1942 to 1944 he was also Minister of Labor. In 1950, his party decided to dissolve the coalition, after which Willis was the opposition leader. In 1954 he was replaced as party chairman.

In the minority government of Dufferin Roblin , Willis served as Secretary of Agriculture and Deputy Prime Minister from 1958 to 1960. Governor General Georges Vanier swore him in on January 15, 1960 as Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba. He held this representative office until his death.

Sporting successes

• 1st place Olympic Winter Games 1932 (demonstration competition)

Web links

• Errick Willis on Worldcurling.org (English)
• Listing on the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba website
• Biography on the Manitoba Historical Society website
• Errick Willis - biographical information on the website of the Canadian Parliament (English)