Claude Wagner
Claude Wagner, PC, QC (April 4, 1925 - July 11, 1979) was a judge and politician in the Province of Quebec, Canada. In his career, Wagner was a Crown prosecutor, professor of criminal law and judge. He earned a "law and order" reputation when he served successively as Solicitor General, Attorney General, and Minister of Justice from its creation in 1965 to 1966 in the government of Quebec Premier Jean Lesage.
After losing the Quebec Liberal Party leadership race to Robert Bourassa in 1970, Wagner left politics to return to the bench. He then entered federal politics, and was elected as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Saint-Hyacinthe in the 1972 federal election.[1] He was re-elected in the 1974 election, and stood as a candidate at the Progressive Conservative leadership convention of 1976. Wagner attracted support amongst Tories who believed that having a leader from Quebec would enable the party to break the federal Liberal Party's stranglehold on the province, and from right-wing Tories attracted by his law and order reputation. The man who had helped to persuade Wagner to join the Progressive Conservatives, Brian Mulroney, turned against him so much that he opposed him for the party's leadership in 1976. He had three reasons to do so, according to a biographer, John Sawatsky: first, Wagner had lied that he had not received any kind of financial compensation for his decision to join the party (in fact, a trust fund had been established to protect him financially in case he lost the 1972 federal election); second, Wagner had failed to help the Progressive Conservatives to win considerably more votes in Québec; and third, Wagner's personality was much stiffer, more formal and less social than Mulroney's. Wagner led on the first three ballots, but lost to Joe Clark by 65 votes out of 2,309 on the fourth ballot.[2]
In 1978, he was elevated to the Canadian Senate by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and sat as a Progressive Conservative.[3] One reason for his departure from the House of Commons was that he could not get well along with Joe Clark.[4] He died of cancer the next year at the age of 54.[5]
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[edit] Personal life
Wagner was born in Shawinigan and his parents were of Bavarian and Romanian background.[6]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Pepin's defeat, Wagner victory fail to stop Liberals from retaining majority in Quebec". The Globe and Mail, October 31, 1972.
- ^ John Sawatsky, Mulroney: The Politics of Ambition, published in Canada c. 1991)
- ^ "Trudeau finds a Senate seat for Claude Wagner". The Globe and Mail, April 22, 1979.
- ^ Sawatsky, Mulroney: The Politics of Ambition
- ^ "Quebec senator was ex-Tory MP". The Globe and Mail, July 12, 1979.
- ^ Ian MacDonald (January 8, 1966). "Watch Quebec's Own Gangbuster". The Ottawa Sun. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=z5VlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hooNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2736,1800474&dq=Bavarian. Retrieved April 21, 2009.
[edit] External links
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| Parliament of Canada | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Théogène Ricard |
Member of Parliament from Saint-Hyacinthe 1972–1978 |
Succeeded by Marcel Ostiguy |
- 1925 births
- 1979 deaths
- Lawyers in Quebec
- Canadian judges
- Canadian senators from Quebec
- Canadian people of German descent
- Canadian people of Romanian descent
- Quebec Liberal Party MNAs
- Justice ministers of Quebec
- Members of the Canadian House of Commons from Quebec
- Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs
- Members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada
- Progressive Conservative Party of Canada senators
- People from Shawinigan
- University of Ottawa alumni
