George A. Drew
|
The Honourable George A. Drew PC CC QC |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| 14th Premier of Ontario | |
|
In office August 17, 1943 – October 19, 1948 |
|
| Monarch | George VI |
| Lieutenant Governor |
Albert E. Matthews Ray Lawson |
| Preceded by | Harry Nixon |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Kennedy |
| Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada) | |
|
In office October 2, 1948 – August 1, 1956 |
|
| Monarch |
George VI Elizabeth II |
| Prime Minister |
W.L. Mackenzie King Louis St. Laurent |
| Preceded by | John Bracken |
| Succeeded by | John Diefenbaker |
| Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada | |
|
In office October 2, 1948 – November 29, 1956 |
|
| Preceded by | John Bracken |
| Succeeded by | John Diefenbaker |
| Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom | |
|
In office 1957–1964 |
|
| Prime Minister | John Diefenbaker, Lester Pearson |
| Preceded by | Norman Robertson |
| Succeeded by | Lionel Chevrier |
| Member of the Canadian Parliament for Carleton |
|
|
In office December 20, 1948 – January 8, 1957 |
|
| Preceded by | George Russell Boucher |
| Succeeded by | Dick Bell |
| Ontario MPP | |
|
In office February 14, 1939 – August 4, 1943 |
|
| Preceded by | William Finlayson |
| Succeeded by | John Duncan McPhee |
| Constituency | Simcoe East |
|
In office August 4, 1943 – June 7, 1948 |
|
| Preceded by | William Alexander Baird |
| Succeeded by | William Horace Temple |
| Constituency | High Park |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
George Alexander Drew May 7, 1894 Guelph, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | January 4, 1973 (aged 78) Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Resting place | Woodlawn Memorial Park, Guelph |
| Political party |
Ontario PC Party, Progressive Conservative Party of Canada |
| Alma mater |
University of Toronto Osgoode Hall Law School |
| Religion | Anglican |
George Alexander Drew, PC CC QC (May 7, 1894 – January 4, 1973) was a Canadian conservative politician who founded a Progressive Conservative dynasty in Ontario that lasted 42 years. He served as the 14th Premier of Ontario from 1943 to 1948.
George Drew was educated at Upper Canada College, graduated from the University of Toronto, where he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Alpha Phi chapter). He then studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School. He served with distinction in World War I as an officer in the Canadian Field Artillery. After the war he became lieutenant-colonel of the 11th Field Brigade and later honorary colonel of the 11th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery. He was called to the bar in 1920. He married Fiorenza Johnson (1910–1965), daughter of Edward Johnson, noted opera singer (tenor) and later General Manager (1935–1950) of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. He remarried in 1966 to Phyllis McCullagh, the widow of the former publisher of Toronto's The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Telegram newspapers, George McCullagh. Drew was survived by McCullagh at his death.
He was elected mayor of the City of Guelph in 1925 after serving as an alderman. In 1929 he left to become assistant master and then master of the Supreme Court of Ontario. As a practising lawyer, in 1931, he was appointed the first Chairman of the Ontario Securities Commission by the provincial Conservative government and was fired by the Liberal government of the colourful Mitch Hepburn after it came to power as a result of the 1934 provincial election. Drew ran for the leadership of the near moribund Conservative Party of Ontario at the 1936 Conservative leadership convention losing to Earl Rowe who subsequently appointed Drew to the position of provincial organizer for the party. Drew broke with the Tories, however, when they opposed Hepburn's attempt to crush the Congress of Industrial Organizations attempt to unionize General Motors in Oshawa. He ran as an Independent Conservative in Wellington South during the 1937 provincial election but was defeated along with the Tories with Rowe failing to win a seat in the legislature and consequently resigning as party leader. Drew ran again for the Conservative leadership in 1938, this time successfully and entered the Legislative Assembly of Ontario through a 1939 by-election as the Member of Provincial Parliament for Simcoe East. In the 1943 provincial election, he was elected in the Toronto riding of High Park.
...
Wikipedia