Mitchell Sharp

Mitchell William Sharp , PC , CC (born May 11, 1911 in Winnipeg , Manitoba , † March 19, 2004 in Ottawa , Ontario ) was a Canadian politician .

biography

Sharp began his political career in the early 1960s when Lester Pearson asked him to join his campaign for the Liberal Party of Canada . In the election of April 8, 1963 , he was elected as a representative of the constituency of Toronto-Eglinton to the House of Commons , of which he was a member until 1978.

After the Liberal Party's electoral victory, Prime Minister Pearson appointed him to the government on April 22, 1963 as Federal Minister of Commerce and Industry. He held this office until 1966. Between 1965 and 1968 he was also Federal Minister of Finance. Under Pearson's successor as Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau , he was Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from April 1968 to July 1974. During his tenure as foreign minister there were a number of changes in foreign policy: relations with the People's Republic of China were strengthened, relations with the US were restructured, military commitments to NATO were halved and new dialogues with Europe and Japan began.

In 1974 he left federal politics and instead became a commission agent for the Northern Pipeline Agency. In addition, between 1976 and 1986 he was Deputy Chairman of the Trilateral Commission (TC) , a society with over 300 members from Europe, North America and Japan with the aim of improving cooperation between these regions. He also became vice chairman of a conflict of interest task force in 1984 that published a report on ethical behavior in the public sector.

In 1993, at the age of 82, he became Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's personal advisor under a symbolic $ 1 annual salary contract and remained his advisor until the end of Chrétien's tenure on December 11, 2003.

He was awarded the Order of Canada for his services .

Web links

• Mitchell Sharp - biographical information on the website of the Canadian Parliament (English)
• Entry on rulers.org