Howard Pawley

Howard Russell Pawley, PC , OC , OM (born November 21, 1934) is a Canadian politician and professor who was Premier of Manitoba from 1981 to 1988.

Personal life

Pawley was born in Brampton, Ontario, and was educated at Manitoba Teachers College, United College, the University of Winnipeg and Manitoba Law School. In 1960, he married Adele Schreyer, a cousin of Edward Schreyer, who served as Premier of Manitoba from 1969 to 1977.

Pawley worked as a lawyer and educator, and was active in the Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and its successor, the New Democratic Party of Manitoba (NDP). In 1957, Pawley was elected President of the Manitoba CCF, becoming at the age of 24, the youngest President in the party's history. He opposed the transformation of the CCF into the NDP in 1961, but this decision did not hurt his subsequent career in the party.

Political career

Pawley first ran for public office in the 1957 federal election, as the CCF candidate in the riding of Lisgar, finishing fourth with 443 votes. In the 1958 provincial election, he ran in the northern riding of The Pas and received 801 votes, finishing third. In the 1965 federal election, he ran in the Selkirk riding and received a more respectable 4,456 votes, finishing third again.

In the provincial election of 1969, Pawley was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for the constituency of Selkirk, a mixed urban/rural seat to the north of Winnipeg. He was chosen to be a part of Edward Schreyer's cabinet, and was sworn in as Minister of Government Services and Minister of Municipal Affairs on July 15, 1969. He stood down from the former position on December 18, 1969, but retained the latter until September 22, 1976. In addition to his cabinet duties, Pawley also chaired a committee that brought forward public auto insurance legislation for the province, and was the first Chair and Minister responsible for the Manitoba public Insurance Corporation (1971-73).

On September 4, 1973, Pawley was promoted to Attorney-General. After stepping down as Municipal Affairs minister in 1976, he was given the additional responsibility of administering the Liquor Control Act.

In 1979, Pawley replaced Schreyer as leader of the provincial NDP. He was initially elected leader by the party caucus on an interim basis, and later defeated Muriel Smith and Russell Doern at the (subsequent leadership convention. Like Schreyer, he was from the northeast of the province and could appeal to voters beyond the CCF/NDP's traditional Winnipeg base. In the 1981 election, the NDP led by Pawley defeated the Progressive Conservative government of Sterling Lyon. This was the first time in the province's history that any party had ever been voted out of office after serving only one term.

Pawley was sworn in as Premier of Manitoba on November 30, 1981. His government was a progressive administration that reintroduced and entrenched French language rights that had been removed by the Thomas Greenway government in 1890. His government launched the giant Limestone hydro generating project and negotiated major export agreements of hydro electricity to the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

On the economic front, the Pawley government's record was at or near the top in provincial comparison in respect to investment and employment growth and often enjoyed the lowest unemployment rate anywhere in Canada, and sustained the provinces social programs during the recession of the early 1980s.

On the social front the Pawley government enacted progressive changes to labour legislation including pay equity, Final Offer Selection and first-contract legislation. It also introduced progressive changes to the Human Rights Code, including the addition of the words "sexual orientation".

Pawley's NDP was reduced to a narrow majority in 1986, winning 30 of 57 seats. His government would become increasingly unpopular with the electorate over the next two years, due primarily to a jump in auto insurance premiums in 1987. In 1988, a disgruntled NDP MLA named Jim Walding voted against his government's budget and caused the government to fall. Pawley resigned as party leader and Premier, and did not run in the subsequent election, which was won by the Progressive Conservatives led by Gary Filmon.

In his last years as Premier, Pawley had become a prominent figure on the national stage as an opponent of free trade, as well as a party to the Meech Lake Constitutional Accord. No longer in provincial politics, Pawley again ran as a candidate for the federal NDP in the federal election of 1988, but was defeated by Progressive Conservative candidate David Bjornson.

Post political career

Pawley left politics and became a professor at the University of Windsor where he taught until his retirement. In 2000, he was awarded the Order of Manitoba and in 2001 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2003, he supported Bill Blaikie's campaign to lead the federal NDP. Pawley is currently a Vice President of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association [http://www.ccla.org/peop/directors.shtml] , an Executive member of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Chair of the Harry Crowe Foundation and Vice-President of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.He is also currently a Board Member of the St.Clair- Erie Local Health Integrated Network [LHIN] .

At the University of Windsor, Pawley served as an Associate Professor [1990 –2000 and also served as the Paul Martin Professor University of Windsor [1993-1998] . Pawley also served as the President [1999-2000] of the Windsor University Faculty Association [WUFA] . Later he served as the Stanley Knowles professor at the University Of Waterloo 2000 and visiting Professor, University of Washington in Seattle during the springs of 2001 and 2003.Howard Pawley is Acting Director of the Centre for Studies in Social Justice at the University of Windsor [2006-2007] . Howard Pawley is now an Associate Professor Emeritus at the University of Windsor.

Persondata
NAME = Pawley, Howard Russell
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = politician
DATE OF BIRTH = November 21, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH = Brampton, Ontario, Canada
DATE OF DEATH =
PLACE OF DEATH =