Thomas Crerar

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix = The Honourable

| name = Thomas Crerar

| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=CAN|PC|CC|size=100%}}

| image = CRERAR.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Crerar, August 1919

| office = Minister of Mines and Resources

| primeminister = W. L. Mackenzie King

| term_start = 1 December 1936

| term_end = 17 April 1945

| predecessor = Office Established

| successor = James Allison Glen

| office1 =

Minister of the Interior
Minister of Mines
Minister of Immigration and Colonization

Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs

| primeminister1 = W. L. Mackenzie King

| term_start1 = 23 October 1935

| term_end1 = 30 November 1936

| predecessor1 = Thomas Gerow Murphy (as Minister of the Interior and Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs)

Wesley Ashton Gordon (as Minister of Mines and Minister of Immigration and Colonization)

| successor1 = Office Abolished

| office2 = Minister of Agriculture

| primeminister2 = W. L. Mackenzie King

| term_start2 = 25 October 1935

| term_end2 = 3 November 1935

| predecessor2 = Robert Weir

| successor2 = James Garfield Gardiner

| termlabel2 = Acting

| primeminister3 = Sir Robert Borden

| term_start3 = 12 October 1917

| term_end3 = 11 June 1919

| predecessor3 = Martin Burrell

| successor3 = James Alexander Calder (acting)

| office4 = Minister of Railways and Canals

| primeminister4 = W. L. Mackenzie King

| term_start4 = 30 December 1929

| term_end4 = 6 August 1930

| predecessor4 = Charles Avery Dunning (acting)

| successor4 = Robert James Manion

| office5 = Senator for Churchill, Manitoba

| appointed5 = W. L. Mackenzie King

| term_start5 = 18 April 1945

| term_end5 = 31 May 1966

| predecessor5 =

| successor5 =

| riding6 = Churchill

| parliament6 = Canadian

| term_start6 = 14 October 1935

| term_end6 = 17 April 1945

| predecessor6 = Bernard Stitt

| successor6 = Ronald Moore

| riding7 = Brandon

| parliament7 = Canadian

| term_start7 = 5 February 1930

| term_end7 = 27 July 1930

| predecessor7 = Robert Forke

| successor7 = David Wilson Beaubier

| riding8 = Marquette

| parliament8 = Canadian

| term_start8 = 17 December 1917

| term_end8 = 28 October 1925

| predecessor8 = William James Roche

| successor8 = Henry Mullins

| birth_name = Thomas Alexander Crerar

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1876|6|17|df=y}}

| birth_place = Molesworth, Ontario, Canada

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1975|4|11|1876|6|17|df=y}}

| death_place = Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

| restingplace =

| party =

{{plainlist|

Unionist (1917–1922)
Progressive (1921–1925)
Liberal (1930–1966)

}}

| children = 2

| profession = {{hlist|Farmer|grain merchant| managing director|teacher}}

| spouse = {{marriage|Jessie Hamilton|1906|1967|end=died}}

| education =

{{plainlist|

University of Manitoba (LLD)

}}

| signature =

}}

Thomas Alexander Crerar {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|PC|CC}} (17 June 1876 – 11 April 1975) was a western Canadian politician and a leader of the short-lived Progressive Party of Canada. He was born in Molesworth, Ontario, and moved to Manitoba at a young age.

Early career

Crerar rose to prominence as leader of the Manitoba Grain Growers' Association in the 1910s. Although he had no experience as an elected official, he was appointed as Minister of Agriculture in Robert Laird Borden's Union government on October 12, 1917, to provide a show of national unity during the First World War. He was easily elected to the House of Commons of Canada for Marquette in the election of 1917.

On June 6, 1919, Crerar resigned from his position in protest against the high tariff policies of the Conservative-dominated government. He was strongly in favor of free trade with the United States, which would have benefited the western farmers.

Progressive Party of Canada

In 1920, he was selected as leader of the Progressive Party. In the 1921 election, he led the party to a landslide victory in western Canada, giving them 65 seats in the House of Commons. Crerar failed to hold the party together, however. He resigned as leader in 1922, and the party collapsed shortly thereafter.

Private sector work

Crerar spent some time in the private sector before returning to politics in 1929, as a member of William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal Party. Although once again not holding a seat in parliament, he was appointed Minister of Railways and Canals (Canada) on December 30, 1929, and won a by-election in Brandon on February 5, 1930. King's government was defeated in the general election that followed, however, and Crerar was personally defeated in his riding.

Return to politics

File:KingAircraftInspection1940.jpg inspecting No. 110 (City of Toronto) Squadron, R.C.A.F. The aircraft in the background is Westland 'Lysander' II 417. [L-R]: Hon. T.A. Crerar, Air Marshal G.M. Croil, Rt. Hon. W.L. Mackenzie King, W/C W.D. Van Vliet, Hon. Norman Rogers, 13 January 1940.]]

He returned to parliament in the 1935 election, as the member for the northern Manitoba riding of Churchill. He was once again appointed to King's cabinet, serving as Minister of Immigration and Colonization, Minister of Mines, Minister of the Interior and Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs from October 23, 1935, to November 30, 1936. On December 1, 1936, he was removed from most of his responsibilities and became simply Minister of Mines and Resources, holding the position until April 17, 1945.

Crerar was appointed to the Senate of Canada on April 18, 1945, and remained a Senator until his retirement on May 31, 1966. In 1962, Crerar considered it an "error" to give voting rights to Inuit and advocated revoking this right for Inuit in the eastern Arctic to vote.{{cite book |last=Duffy |first=R. Quinn |date=1988 |title=Road to Nunavut: The Progress of the Eastern Arctic Inuit since the Second World War |url=https://archive.org/details/roadtonunavutpro0000duff |url-access=registration |location=Montreal |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |jstor=j.ctt130hdm7 |isbn=0774812427}}{{rp|227}} In 1973, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. He died in 1975.