James Gordon Carr (October 11, 1951 – December 12, 2022) was a Canadian politician, cabinet minister, journalist, and professional oboist. A member of the Liberal Party, he served as the member of Parliament for Winnipeg South Centre from 2015 until his death on December 12, 2022. Carr died days after his Private Members Bill, Bill C-235, An Act respecting the building of a green economy in the Prairies, passed the House and went to the Senate. He last served as the Chair of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, until his resignation on September 29, 2022.
Carr previously served as the Minister of Natural Resources from 2015 to 2018 and Minister of International Trade Diversification from 2018 to 2019. He left Cabinet in 2019 after being diagnosed with cancer, but soon after was named the Special Representative for the Prairies. In 2021, he returned to Cabinet to concurrently serve as a Minister without Portfolio and the Special Representative for the Prairies. He previously was a member of the Manitoba Legislature from 1988 to 1992 for the Manitoba Liberal Party.
Biography
Carr was born on October 11, 1951, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the son of Esther (Golden) and David Carr. He graduated from University of Winnipeg Collegiate, and played the oboe for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from ages 16 to 21.
After graduation, Carr worked in Winnipeg as a staffer on the Manitoba government's cultural policy review, and worked as a journalist in the early 1980s. The Liberals fell from twenty seats to seven in this election; Carr resigned his seat in February 1992.
Post-provincial politics
After resigning his seat in 1992, Carr worked as a columnist and was on the editorial board for the Winnipeg Free Press. an organization which he co-founded and stayed with until 2015. In this role, he also participated in the Winnipeg Consensus, which began with an unprecedented meeting held in October 2009, bringing together diverse organizations who agreed a national dialogue and a Canadian Clean Energy Strategy was needed on the role of energy in Canada's environmental and economic future. In his role as the President of the Business Council of Manitoba, Carr also advocated for a temporary increase to the PST by 1% to assist municipalities with their infrastructure deficits.
Carr was also a board member on the Canada West Foundation and the Winnipeg Airports Authority, as well as vice-president of the Performing Arts Consortium of Winnipeg, and a director of the Manitoba Arts Stabilization Fund. Carr has also been active in the Canadian Jewish Congress. He went on to win the nomination meeting and was declared the Liberal candidate for the 2015 federal election. He won the subsequent election on October 19, 2015, with 59.7 per cent of the vote. Two weeks later on November 4, 2015, Carr was officially sworn into the cabinet as Minister of Natural Resources.
Minister of Natural Resources
thumb|Carr at the [[2018 G20 Buenos Aires summit|2018 G20 summit in Argentina.]]
Carr's earlier work on the Winnipeg Consensus formed the basis for Generation Energy, his signature initiative as Minister of Natural Resources, launched in April 2017. This began a national dialogue on Canada's energy future aimed at finding out how Canadians want to meet Canada's climate goals, create jobs and keep energy affordable. More than 380,000 people engaged in the dialogue through online platforms and in-person roundtables, including the Generation Energy Conference held in Winnipeg with more than 650 participants from across Canada and around the world. The ideas that came from the dialogue resulted in billions of dollars of investments in electric vehicles and alternative fuels, smart grids, clean energy solutions for rural and remote communities, energy efficient buildings and emerging renewable power solutions.
Carr worked closely with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, to develop the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change (PCF). He oversaw the efforts of his department to implement 30 of the 50 identified actions under the PCF, including many of the aforementioned investments.
In this role, Carr also represented Canada at the June 2016 Clean Energy Ministerial and Mission Innovation, where he announced that the federal government will "double its spending on clean-energy research to $775-million by 2020, and look for ways to boost the commercialization of the emerging technology." Carr then laid the groundwork for Canada to host the Clean Energy Ministerial/Mission Innovation in Vancouver in May 2019, which showcased Canada's efforts to boost women in energy, indigenous clean energy entrepreneurship and launch Canada's Energy Vision based on the results of the Generation Energy initiative.
On February 11, 2016, as Natural Resources Minister, Carr purchased seven tickets to an NHL game featuring the Winnipeg Jets versus the Boston Bruins. His guests included the energy ministers and ambassadors from the United States and Mexico. It was later revealed Carr expensed $1,258.25 for the tickets and $525.30 for limo transportation from the Fort Garry Hotel to Winnipeg's MTS Centre arena. A spokesperson for Carr's office stated that the spending was in line with treasury board directives on hospitality and provided an opportunity for discussions in advance of an energy summit the following day.
Minister of International Trade Diversification
On July 18, 2018, Carr was shuffled from Minister of Natural Resources to the newly created position of Minister of International Trade Diversification.
In this role, Carr oversaw the expansion of Canada's Trade Commissioner Service (TCS), which helps Canadian businesses find customers in other countries. The Fall 2018 Economic Statement dedicated $1.2 billion towards the Trade Diversification Strategy, helping Canadians export around the globe. This included $290 million over five years towards the TCS and a $100 million expansion of the CanExport program, which supports Canadian entrepreneurs looking to export.
This led to broadening opportunities for Canadian businesses to reach the 500 million consumers in European markets under the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), with the addition of 11 new trade commissioners across the EU, including enhanced presence in Milan.
In Canada, Carr announced the reopening of the TCS regional hub office in Winnipeg, which serves Canadian exporters in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Carr oversaw initiatives to help close socio-economic gaps and create a trade environment where more Canadians can participate, including:
- Leading the first-ever government-led LGBTQ2 trade mission, at the NGLCC International Business Leadership Conference in Philadelphia in August 2018
- Expanding TCS resources across Canada to help connect Indigenous exporters to business opportunities abroad
- Delivering on a commitment to conduct a Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) as part of discussions towards a free trade agreement with Mercosur, marking "the first time such an analysis has been conducted on an ongoing free trade negotiation anywhere in the world"
In his time as Minister of International Trade Diversification, Carr welcomed the entry into force of one multilateral (CPTPP) and two bilateral (Chile and Israel) free trade agreements. The Canada-USA-Mexico agreement negotiations were concluded by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland. Under Carr, negotiations continued with three other trading blocs: Mercosur, ASEAN and the Pacific Alliance.
Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)
Soon after he was sworn in, Carr picked up the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) file. Moving swiftly to ensure early preferential access for Canadian businesses, Carr and the federal government made the ratification of CPTPP in Canada a top priority, moving it though parliament in record time. Implementing legislation for the CPTPP, Bill C-79, was introduced for debate in the House of Commons by his predecessor on June 14, 2018. Carr introduced its second reading three months later, on September 17. Bill C-79 received royal assent on October 25 and Carr announced four days later that Canada was officially the 5th CPTPP country to ratify the agreement. In Carr's words, the CPTPP legislation was introduced and moved "with a speed reflecting the importance of the CPTPP to farmers, ranchers, entrepreneurs and workers across Canada." Carr and his predecessor, Francois-Philippe Champagne, marked the entry into force of the CPTPP with business owners and exporters at the Port of Vancouver on February 11, 2019. With the implementation of the CPTPP, and therefore free trade with Japan, Canada then became the only G7 country with trade agreements with all six other G7 partners. In welcoming the modernization, Carr said: "This milestone agreement will help further encourage trade between Canada and Chile, by stimulating investment and creating new jobs. It has been modernized to reflect the Canadian economy of today, including the dynamic leadership that women continue to demonstrate as entrepreneurs and innovators." and Carr welcomed its entry into force on September 1, 2019. CIFTA became the second Canadian free trade agreement to include a chapter on gender, and implemented additional components aimed at "creating conditions for trade where more people can participate and benefit from the wealth it creates. This means including more small and medium-sized businesses, defending workers' rights, encouraging the participation of women-owned businesses and protecting the environment."
Corporate social responsibility
In the area of corporate responsibility, Carr announced the appointment of Sheri Meyerhoffer as Canada's first Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) on April 8, 2019. Meyerhoffer's mandate, described as a world first, is to "review allegations of human rights abuses arising from the operations of Canadian companies abroad" and to make recommendations. Her role focuses on the mining, garment, oil and gas sectors. According to the news release, "companies that do not cooperate could face trade measures, including the withdrawal of trade advocacy services and future Export Development Canada support."
The day after his election, Carr was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He stepped down from Cabinet to fight it, but accepted a role as federal government's special representative to the Prairies. Carr described the role as being "the prime minister's eyes and ears and voice in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta". On January 12, 2021, Carr returned to cabinet as minister without portfolio while keeping his special representative role. Carr is the first Minister without Portfolio in the Canadian Cabinet since 1978, a position last appointed by Pierre Trudeau.
Third term
Carr was re-elected to a third term as Member for Winnipeg South Centre in the 2021 federal election. Following his re-election, Carr was not re-appointed to Cabinet. Instead, he was appointed Chair of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security and the subcommittee on that committee's agenda and procedure until his resignation from those roles in September 2022.
Carr's Private Member's Bill, Bill C-235, An Act respecting the building of a green economy in the Prairies, was a major focus of his third term.
On October 25, 2019, Carr issued a statement about having felt flu-like symptoms during the campaign. Blood tests revealed shortly afterward that he had multiple myeloma, a blood cancer. He said that he would commence chemotherapy and dialysis treatment whilst remaining in the House of Commons. Carr died of cancer at home in Winnipeg, on December 12, 2022. He was 71.
His son Ben Carr is an educator, a former staffer to Mélanie Joly, and succeeded him as the Member for Winnipeg South Centre in a by-election in 2023.