Irwin Haskett

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Irwin Haskett

| image = Irwin Haskett portrait.jpg

| imagesize =

| caption =

| office = Ontario MPP

| term_start = 1959

| term_end = 1971

| predecessor = George Dunbar

| successor = Claude Bennett

| constituency = Ottawa South

| party = Progressive Conservative

| birth_name = Wesley Irwin Haskett

| birth_date = {{birth date|1903|4|22}}

| birth_place = Ottawa, Ontario

| death_date = {{death date and age|1994|3|23|1903|4|22}}

| death_place =

| occupation = Lawyer

| spouse = Vera Moorhead (d. 1970)
Mary Costache (d. 2011)

}}

Wesley Irwin Haskett (April 22, 1903 – March 23, 1994) was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1959 to 1971 who represented the riding of Ottawa South. He was a cabinet minister in the government of Leslie Frost.

Background

He was born in Montreal, the son of Samuel Wesley Haskett, and was educated at Lisgar Collegiate Institute in Ottawa. He became an attorney specializing in patent law. In 1936, he married Vera Moorhead. Haskett was a freemason.{{cite book |title=Canadian Parliamentary Guide, 1968 |author=PG Normandin |year=1968}} Vera died in 1970 and Haskett remarried Mary Costache.{{cite news |title=Obituary: Mary Haskett (nee Costache) |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=January 14, 2011 |page=S6}}

Haskett was active in the Ottawa community serving as president of the Ottawa Board of Trade and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. He was one of the founders of the annual Tulip Festival in Ottawa which he regularly attended. His wife Mary said, "We always went to look at the tulips." He died in 1994.{{cite news |title=Tulip Festival originator dies at 90 after active life |newspaper=The Ottawa Citizen |date=March 25, 1994 |page=A2}}

Politics

In the 1959 provincial election, he ran as the Progressive Conservative candidate in the riding of Ottawa South. He defeated Liberal candidate Archibald Laidlaw by 1,870 votes.{{cite news |author=Canadian Press |title=Complete Results of Ontario Voting by Constituencies |newspaper=The Ottawa Citizen |date=June 12, 1959 |location=Ottawa |page=26 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Yh0yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=d-QFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6095%2C2812390}} He was re-elected in 1963 and 1967. He retired from office in 1971.{{cite news |title=Retirement is announced by Haskett |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=Apr 27, 1971 |page=2}}

On November 8, 1961, he was appointed to cabinet as Minister of Reform Institutions.{{cite news |title=The New Cabinet |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=November 9, 1961 |page=6}} On August 14, 1963 he was reassigned as Minister of Transport.{{cite news |title=3 Ministers Shuffled By Robarts |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=August 15, 1963 |page=1}} He continued as Minister until 1971 when Bill Davis decided to drop him from his cabinet.{{cite news |title=Changes in policies promised: Davis priorities to include environment and jobless |last1=Manthorpe |first1=Jonathan |last2=Slinger |first2=John |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=March 2, 1971 |page=1}}