- John Bucklaschuk
John Bucklaschuk (born
July 18 ,1939 in Rossburn,Manitoba ) is apolitician inManitoba ,Canada . He was a member of theLegislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1981 to 1988, and acabinet minister in the New Democratic Party government ofHoward Pawley from 1982 to 1988.Bucklaschuk was educated at
Brandon University and theUniversity of Manitoba , and worked as an educator before entering political life. In the Canadian federal election of 1972, he ran as aNew Democratic Party candidate in the riding of Lisgar, but finished a distant third against incumbent Progressive ConservativeJack Murta , and formerLieutenant-Governor and Liberal candidateRichard Spink Bowles .Bucklaschuk first ran for the Manitoba legislature in the provincial election of 1973, losing to Progressive Conservative
Earl McKellar in the rural, southeastern riding ofSouris-Killarney . This seat is generally regarded as a Tory seat.Bucklaschuk was elected for the mid-northern riding of Gimli in the 1981 provincial election, defeating incumbent Tory
Keith Cosens by 830 votes. He entered cabinet onAugust 20 ,1982 , being named Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs and Minister of Cooperative Development, with responsibility for the Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation Act. Following a cabinet shuffle onNovember 4 ,1983 , he was named Minister of Housing, while retaining the MPICA responsibility.In the 1986 election, he was re-elected over Tory candidate
Ed Helwer by almost 1,000 votes. OnApril 17 ,1986 , he was named Minister of Municipal Affairs. Following another cabinet shuffle onSeptember 21 ,1987 , he was named Minister of Highways and was relieved of his responsibility for the MPICA.The NDP unexpectedly lost a legislative vote of confidence in early 1988, and Bucklaschuk lost his seat to Helwer by over 1,000 votes in the election which followed. He has not sought a return to the legislature since this time. He worked in real estate after his loss, and was elected to the Gimli municipal council in 1990.
In 1998, Bucklaschuk was found guilty of libelling former Manitoba Public Insurance President
Carl Laufer , and was order to pay two million dollars in damages. In 1987, he had alleged to the media that Laufer had concealed losses of thirty-six million dollars from MPI; later, counter-allegations emerged that Bucklaschuk had known of the losses for at least a year in advance, but had done nothing. Laufer took the matter to the courts, and was awarded the largest defamation bill in Canadian history; subsequently, however, a higher court ruled that the fine was grossly excessive and overturned the decision. In 2000, theSupreme Court of Canada rejected Laufer's appeal of this decision.Recently, Bucklaschuk has spoken out against the proposed North American
Missile Defense Shield promoted by the American administration ofGeorge W. Bush .
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.