Davie Fulton

Edmund Davie Fulton PC OC QC (born March 10, 1916 in Kamloops , British Columbia , † May 22, 2000 ) was a Canadian lawyer and politician of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada , who was a member of the House of Commons and several times a minister.

Life

Family origins, World War II and lawyer

Fulton was a son of the lawyer Frederick John Fulton , who was also a member of the House of Commons between 1917 and 1921, and the grandson of Alexander Edmund Batson Davie , who was Prime Minister of British Columbia from 1887 to 1889 . His younger brother and great-uncle of Davie Fulton, Theodore Davie , was also Prime Minister of British Columbia between 1892 and 1895.

After attending school, he studied law and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.). During the Second World War between 1940 and 1945 he did his military service with the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and was among other things at the headquarters of the 1st Canadian Division. He later obtained a doctorate in law (LL.D.) and, after being admitted to the bar, worked as a solicitor and barrister . For his legal services he was appointed Crown Counsel ( Queen's Counsel ).

Member of the House of Commons and Minister

In the general election of June 11, 1945 , Fulton was elected as a candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party in the Kamloops constituency for the first time as a member of the House of Commons and belonged to it for more than twenty years until the general election on June 25, 1968 when he was defeated in the Kamloops constituency -Cariboo suffered.

After George A. Drew resigned as chairman of the Progressive Conservative Party due to illness , he applied for his successor on December 14, 1956, but was clearly defeated by John Diefenbaker in the first ballot.

On June 21, 1957, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker appointed him Minister of Justice and Attorney General in Canada's 18th Cabinet and held this position until August 8, 1962. He was also between June 21, 1957 and May 11, 1958 Acting Minister for Citizenship and Immigration.

During this time he was involved in negotiations to detach the Constitution of Canada from the influence of Great Britain as part of the so-called patriation and created the Fulton – Favreau Formula together with the liberal Member of the House of Commons Guy Favreau . Furthermore, the Parole Board of Canada was set up in 1959 .

During his tenure as Justice Minister, the so-called Munsinger affair , the first political sex scandal in Canada of national importance, also fell. It concerned Gerda Munsinger , an alleged prostitute from Germany who was suspected of being a spy in the service of the Soviet Union . From 1958 to 1961 she had a love affair with two ministers from John Diefenbaker's Conservative government, namely Deputy Defense Minister Pierre Sévigny and Transport Minister George Hees . Sévigny even signed her application for naturalization. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police checked Munsinger's origins and found that she had lived in the Soviet zone of occupation for some time after World War II and thus posed a security risk. The matter was settled behind closed doors: Justice Minister Fulton had her deported to Germany and Sévigny resigned in 1963.

As part of a cabinet reshuffle he took over on August 9, 1962, the Office of the Minister of Public Works and kept this until the end of the term Diefenbakers on 21 April 1963. He was also at the preliminary negotiations for the conclusion of the Columbia River Treaty with the United States involved in which in 1964 the construction of dams in the Columbia River for energy generation and flood control was agreed.

In January 1963 Fulton became the new chairman of the British Columbia Conservative Party , but resigned from this office in April 1965.

Unsuccessful candidacy as party chairman and judge

At the party congress of the progressive-conservative party on September 9, 1967, he was one of the opposing candidates John Diefenbaker, but ultimately lost in third place after the runner-up Dufferin Roblin against Robert Stanfield , who was Prime Minister of Nova Scotia . During his membership in parliament he was last from 1967 to 1968 spokesman for the opposition for mining and technical assessment.

Then he retired from political life back and was back working as a lawyer before he 1973 Supreme Court of British Columbia ( Supreme Court of British Columbia was) and held this post until the 1,981th At times he was Chairman of the Law Reform Commission of British Columbia.

Most recently, between 1986 and 1992, he was Commissioner of the Canadian Delegation to the International Joint Commission , a Canadian-US-American bi-national commission for the supervision of the Border Waters Treaty of 1909, the Water Quality Convention for the Great Lakes of 1978 and the Air Quality Convention of 1991.

On April 30, 1992 he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Canada for his services . In addition, he was in 1993 honorary colonel of the 419th Tactical Fighter Squadron (419 Tactical Fighter Squadron (training)).

Web links

• Curriculum Vitae (Canadian Parliament homepage)
• Entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry (Order of Canada)