George A. Drew

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George Drew (1939)

George Alexander Drew , PC , CC , QC (born May 7, 1894 in Guelph , Ontario , Canada , † January 4, 1973 in Toronto ) was a Canadian politician and diplomat .

Life

Promotion to Prime Minister of Ontario

After graduating from Upper Canada College and completing an undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto , he studied law at the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in Toronto . During the First World War he did his military service in the Canadian Field Artillery, where he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the 11th Field Brigade and Colonel of Honor in the 11th Field Regiment after the war . In 1920 he was admitted to the bar .

Drew was initially a city councilor (Alderman) for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in local politics and was elected mayor of his native Guelph in 1925.

1938 became chairman of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and held this office until 1948 and as such in 1939 elected to the legislative assembly of Ontario . On August 17, 1943, he succeeded Harry Nixon as Prime Minister of Ontario . At the same time he held the office of Minister of Education during his tenure, which lasted until October 19, 1948. With him began an era of conservative exercise of power in Ontario , which ended only in the mid-1980s. In 1943 Drew's Progressive Conservative Party narrowly won against the socialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). He criticized the government for delaying general mobilization for too long. In 1945 an anti-communist campaign led to another election victory, but Drew lost his own constituency in Toronto in 1948 .

Opposition leader in the House of Commons

George Drew (1947)

In 1948 he retired from provincial politics after he was elected chairman of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada on October 2, 1948 as the successor to John Bracken . As his party's top candidate, he suffered a major defeat in the 1949 general election , in which the progressive conservatives lost 25 of their 66 seats and Louis Saint-Laurent of the Liberal Party was once again Prime Minister of Canada . He himself was elected a member of the House of Commons for the Carleton constituency, which he represented until 1957.

When his party won ten seats in the general election in 1953 , but remained well behind Saint-Laurent's Liberal Party, he resigned on November 29, 1956 as chairman of the Progressive Conservative Party. He was succeeded on December 14, 1956 by John Diefenbaker .

When he became Prime Minister after winning the general election in 1957 , Drew was appointed High Commissioner of Canada in London . He held this post until 1964.

After returning to Canada, he was Chancellor of the University of Guelph from 1965 to 1971 . For his political services he was among other things Companion of the Order of Canada .

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personal data
SURNAME Drew, George A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Drew, George Alexander (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Guelph , Ontario , Canada
DATE OF DEATH 4th January 1973
Place of death Toronto , Canada