Thomas Crerar

Thomas Alexander Crerar, PC, CC ( born June 17, 1876 in Molesworth, Ontario, † 11 April 1975 in Victoria) was a Canadian politician. He was at the beginning of the 1920s in the House leader of the short-lived Progressive Party, which represented the interests of agriculture in western Canada. Later he moved to the Liberal Party and was Minister in the cabinet of William Lyon Mackenzie King, who had him appoint a senator in 1945.

Biography

Crerar was born in the rural southwest of the province of Ontario and moved to Manitoba at a young age. There he worked as a teacher and farmer. From 1907 he was chairman of the Manitoba Grain Growers, an influential association of wheat growers. Although he had collected so far no experience in political office, Prime Minister Robert Borden appointed him in October 1917 to the Minister of Agriculture in his Unionist coalition government. In the elections in December 1917 he was elected MP for the constituency Marquette.

In June 1919 Crerar left in protest against the high tariff policy of the Government, the Cabinet. The finance minister had submitted a budget that hardly took into account the concerns of farmers in Western Canada. This advocated free trade with the U.S., as this would have given them advantages. The following year, was built on the initiative Crerars Progressive Party, which should represent the various agricultural organizations at the federal level.

The new party won the elections in December 1921 right away 58 seats and became the second strongest force. Crerar was not a national party chairman, but only party leader in Parliament. The media saw him as a leading figure in the party, although he held no official position outside parliament. He failed in an attempt to reshape the very decentralized organized political movement in a more effective party organization. As the new chairman took effect in 1922 Robert Forke in appearance and the Progressive Party consequently lost rapidly in importance. 1925 Crerar resigned as deputy lower house and went into the private sector.

William Lyon Mackenzie King appointed Crerar in December 1929 Minister for railways and canals and moved in February 1930 with the victory in a by-election in Brandon, representing the Liberals back to the House a. Already in the elections in June 1930, he lost his seat again. Five years later he joined again as the Liberal candidate and was elected in Churchill. From October 1935 to April 1945, he held various ministerial posts ( Indian Affairs, Interior, mining, immigration). At the request of the King's Governor General Crerar appointed then a senator. This committee he was a member until May 1966.