Gordon Minto Churchill (November 8, 1898 – August 3, 1985) was a Canadian politician. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1946 to 1949 as an independent, and in the House of Commons of Canada from 1951 to 1968 as a Progressive Conservative. He served in the cabinet of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker.
Early life
The son of J. W. Churchill and Mary Shier, Churchill was educated in Port Arthur, Ontario, at United College in Winnipeg and at the University of Manitoba, where he received a Master of Arts degree and a law degree. He worked as a teacher and school principal, and served as president of the Manitoba Teachers' Society. He belonged to the law firm of Haig and Haig, which was founded by the family of Conservative politician John Thomas Haig. In 1922, he married Mona Mary McLachlin. Although he had ties to the Progressive Conservative Party, he served in the legislature as an independent. He resigned from the Manitoba legislature in 1949 to run for the Canadian House of Commons in the riding of Winnipeg South Centre. He finished a distant second to incumbent Liberal candidate Ralph Maybank. Maybank resigned two years later, and Churchill ran in the ensuing by-election, which he won by less than 800 votes. He was returned by greater margins in the 1953 and 1957 general elections.
Churchill was a key adviser to Progressive Conservative Party leader John Diefenbaker during this period, and was widely credited with developing the strategy that propelled the Tories to victory in 1957. The Liberal Party of Louis St. Laurent had been in power since 1935, and appeared to have strong popular support. Prior to the 1957 election, Churchill wrote a confidential paper arguing that the Progressive Conservative Party could form government by targeting seats in the English-speaking provinces, and did not need to invest resources in Quebec. Diefenbaker followed this strategy, and won a minority government in 1957.
thumb|Queen Elizabeth and members of the federal government of Canada in Ottawa 1957-10-14
Churchill was appointed to Diefenbaker's cabinet on June 21, 1957 as Minister of Trade and Commerce.
Churchill remained loyal to John Diefenbaker during the Progressive Conservative Party's internal quarrels of the 1960s, and worked for Diefenbaker at the party's 1967 leadership convention. When Diefenbaker dropped out of the race, he sent Churchill as an emissary to Dufferin Roblin's camp to endorse Roblin. In February 1968, Churchill attacked new Progressive Conservative leader Robert Stanfield for not forcing an election when the Liberal government of Lester Pearson was unexpectedly defeated in the house.
He left the Progressive Conservative caucus on February 27, 1968 to sit as an Independent Progressive Conservative, and did not run for re-election in the 1968 campaign.
Archives
There is a Gordon Churchill fonds at Library and Archives Canada.