- Sinclair Stevens
Sinclair McKnight Stevens, PC (born
February 11 ,1927 ) is a former Canadian parliamentarian.He was first elected to the
Canadian House of Commons in the 1972 federal election as a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament, defeating Liberal incumbent John Roberts in the riding of York-Simcoe. Stevens ran as a candidate in the 1976 Progressive Conservative leadership convention. He finished seventh on the first ballot, and withdrew in favour of the eventual victorJoe Clark . He served asPresident of the Treasury Board in the short-lived (1979-1980) Clark government.Stevens turned against Clark, and was an early supporter of
Brian Mulroney 's leadership bid which culminated in victory at the 1983 Progressive Conservative leadership convention. After the 1984 election, which resulted in a Tory landslide, Stevens became Minister of Regional Industrial Expansion.He was forced to resign from Cabinet in 1986 following allegations of
conflict of interest . In December 1987, a special commission of inquiry headed by JusticeWilliam Parker ruled he had violated conflict of interest allegations on fourteen counts. Stevens won the party nomination in his riding once again, but Prime Minister Brian Mulroney refused to sign Stevens's nomination papers. forcing the riding association to nominate another candidate. As a result of this bitter fight Stevens left Parliament in 1988.In December 2004, a Federal Court judge declared null and void the findings of the Parker Inquiry. The court ruled that Parker's definition of conflict of interest exceeded that in the guidelines governing ministers in the Mulroney Cabinet, and that Stevens's behaviour did not violate the guidelines that governed him.
Stevens returned to prominence as a bitter opponent of the merger of the
Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives into theConservative Party of Canada . Stevens backed an unsuccessful lawsuit to try to block the merger. [ [http://www.davidorchard.com/online/nomerger/LegalDocuments.html#stevensvscpc David Orchard website] ]Stevens has since become involved with the website [http://www.bloc-harper.com bloc-harper.com] , which promotes the idea that Prime Minister
Stephen Harper andBloc Québécois leaderGilles Duceppe are weakening Canadian federalism in a way that could lead to Quebec's separation from Canada.In 2007, following
Tracy Parsons 's resignation as leader of theProgressive Canadian Party , Stevens became that party'sinterim leader . [ [http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=pol&document=index&dir=par&lang=e&textonly=false#PCP Elections Canada government website] ]ee also
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Canadian federal election, 2008 References
External links
* [http://www.thecommentary.ca/ontheline/20050209a.html Stevens discusses the court's 2004 findings in an audio interview with "THECOMMENTARY.CA" in February 2005]
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