Sterling Lyon

Sterling Rufus Lyon OC ( born January 30, 1927 in Windsor, Ontario, † December 16, 2010 in Winnipeg, Manitoba ) was a Canadian lawyer and politician. From 1958 to 1969 and from 1973 to 1986 he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. After he had held several ministerial posts in the cabinets of Dufferin Roblin and Walter Weir, he reigned 24 November 1977 to 30 November 1981, the Province of Manitoba as Prime Minister. Chairman of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba, he from 1975 to 1983.

Biography

After schooling Lyon studied at the University of Winnipeg and graduated in 1948 from. He completed postgraduate studies in law at the Law School of the University of Manitoba and acquired there in 1953 a Bachelor of Laws ( LL.B. ). Subsequently, he was from 1953 to 1957 worked as a prosecutor. As a candidate of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba ( Tories ), he was first elected in June 1958 as a deputy in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba and represented in this constituency Fort Garry. Prime Minister Dufferin Roblin then appointed him to the Attorney General.

In early elections in May 1959 the Tories won an absolute majority. Lyon also took over the management of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs ( September 1960-October 1961 ) and the Ministry of Public Utilities ( October 1961-June 1963 ). In a cabinet reshuffle Lyon in 1963 Minister of Mines and Natural Resources in December. This office he held until June 1966; next to it was the middle of 1964 in addition to short again minister of public utilities. After the elections in June 1966, he was again Attorney General, and at the same time from 1968 to July 1969 Minister of Tourism and Leisure.

After Roblins resignation Lyon in 1967 a candidate for the party presidency of the Tories, but was inferior to Walter Weir. At the elections in June 1969, he no longer went to. Five years later, he ran for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to the House of Commons elections in 1974, but could not against the incumbent Defense James Armstrong Richardson, prevail. In the elections for president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba Lyon won against Sidney Spivak in December 1975. Then he decided a by-election for himself and was Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly.

Lyon led the Tories on 11 October 1977 on the election victory of the New Democratic Party of Manitoba (NDP ), the incumbent Prime Minister Edward Schreyer. On 24 November, he succeeds Schreyer. His government took in numerous ministries before budget cuts, but promoted in turn to a large extent the energy industry. Lyon was at the beginning of an opponent of the revision of the Constitution of Canada, sat down, but then for the conditional clause ( notwithstanding clause ) in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which elected parliaments gives a superior importance. In the elections of November 17, 1981 were subject to the Tories of the NDP. On November 30, Lyon handed the office of Prime Minister Howard Pawley.

For two years, Lyon remained opposition leader until 1986, when he relinquished the party leadership to Gary Filmon. After retiring from politics in 1986, he was until 2002 a judge at the Court of Appeal of Manitoba. In 2002 he received for his services to the Order of Manitoba, in 2009 the Order of Canada.