John Pickersgill

John "Jack" Whitney Pickersgill PC CC (* 23. June 1905 in Wyecombe , Ontario ; † 14. November 1997 ) was a Canadian university lecturer , shipping entrepreneur , author and politician of the Liberal Party of Canada , 14-year member of the Canadian House of Commons several times Minister and President of the Transport Commission.

Life

After attending school, Pickersgill completed a degree in history at the University of Manitoba , which he completed in 1927 with a Master of Arts (MA) with a thesis on Canadian responsible government from British Hansard and other sources . He completed another law degree with a doctorate in law (LL.D.) and then worked as a teacher for the history of Canada in Winnipeg , university lecturer and shipowner.

He later switched to government service and was initially a member of the State Department before becoming deputy private secretary and later special assistant to Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in 1945 . On June 1, 1952, he became secretary of the Privy Council and was also secretary of the cabinet with the rank of vice minister until 1954.

In the general election of August 10, 1953 , he was elected as a candidate for the Liberal Party for the first time as a member of the lower house and represented the constituency of Bonavista-Twillingate until he resigned on September 19, 1967 .

On June 12, 1953, he was appointed to the 17th Canadian cabinet by Prime Minister Louis Saint-Laurent , where he assumed the post of State Secretary for Canada for the first time, before moving from July 1, 1954 to the end of Saint-Laurent's tenure on May 20, 1953 June 1957 was Minister for Citizenship and Immigration.

Prime Minister Lester Pearson reappointed Pickersgill as Secretary of State for Canada in the 19th Government of Canada on April 22, 1963 and held this position until February 22, 1964. At the same time, he was Chairman of the May 16 and December 21, 1963 Liberal faction also Leader of the Government in the House of Commons. Most recently, he was appointed Minister of Transport in a cabinet reshuffle on February 3, 1964, and held this post until his resignation on September 18, 1967.

After leaving the government and the House of Commons, he was appointed President of the Canadian Transport Commission on September 19, 1967 . In this role, he increasingly cut investments and subsidies for Canadian National in order to advance the expansion of the airline Air Canada .

For his many years of service as a politician, but also as an author of historical textbooks, Pickersgill was named Companion des Order of Canada on December 18, 1970 .

Publications

• Canadian responsible government from British Hansard and other sources , Thesis (MA), University of Manitoba, 1927
• Communism and fascism; the coming war of religions , Winnipeg 1937
• A great ship anchored in the gulf: summary of Hon. JW Pickersgill's report on the troubles in Newfoundland , 1959
• The Mackenzie King record , co-author DF Forster, 4 volumes, Toronto 1960–1970
• The Liberal Party , Toronto 1962
• Louis St. Laurent , Don Mills 1972, reprints 1981 and 2001
• My years with Louis St. Laurent: a political memoir , Toronto 1975
• The road back: by a Liberal in opposition Toronto 1986
• Seeing Canada whole: a memoir , Markham 1994

Web links

• Entry on Parliament's homepage
• Order of Canada