George Hees
Encyclopedia
George Harris Hees, PC
, OC
(June 17, 1910 - June 11, 1996) was a Canadian
politician
.
Born in Toronto
to a patrician family, Hees earned a playboy image during his youth (nicknamed Gorgeous George), but then became a stalwart member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
. He was educated at the exclusive Crescent School
in Toronto, Trinity College School
in Port Hope, Ontario
, the Royal Military College
, student # 1976 (where he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Military Science in 1986), the University of Toronto
, and spent a year at Cambridge University
in 1933.
He was a noted athlete, winning championships in boxing
and lacrosse
at Cambridge, and the Grey Cup
with the Toronto Argonauts
Canadian football
team in December 1938. He served in the Canadian Army in North-West Europe during the Second World War. During the Battle of the Scheldt
, he served as the Brigade Major of the 5th Canadian Infantry Brigade. On 1 November 1944, he volunteered to take over command of a company of The Calgary Highlanders
when all their officers were killed or wounded after crossing the Walcheren Causeway
. He was later wounded by a sniper and was repatriated to Canada and discharged.
After placing second to David Croll
in the Toronto riding of Spadina
in the 1945 federal election
, he won election to the Canadian House of Commons
in a 1950 by-election in the nearby riding of Broadview
. He was also President of the Progressive Conservative Party from 1953 to 1956.
With the election of the Diefenbaker government in 1957, Hees was named Minister of Transport
, and oversaw the opening of the St Lawrence Seaway. In 1960, he was appointed Minister of Trade and Commerce
. During this period, Hees was regarded as the second most powerful man in the Tory party. However, in 1963, he had falling out with Diefenbaker, and became embroiled in the Munsinger Affair
and elected to sit out the 1963 election
, which the Tories lost to Lester Pearson.
After considering a defection to the Liberals
, he became President of the Montreal Stock Exchange, he returned to Parliament in the 1965 election
as a PC, defeating Pauline Jewett
in the rural riding of Northumberland
, and remained in the front rows of the opposition ranks for almost two decades.
He ran for the leadership of the PC Party at its 1967 leadership convention
, and placed fourth in a field of eleven on the first ballot. He remained for two further ballots before withdrawing, and supporting the eventual winner, Robert Stanfield
.
He was noted as being involved in a memorable case of battery, in which he forcefully ejected a campaign worker from his room, striking his head against the door. Hees tried to plead self-defence, which failed due to the lack of imminent harm anticipated by him (MacDonald v. Hees (1974), 46 D.L.R. (3d) (N.S.T.D.)).
He was not named to Cabinet during the Joe Clark
government in 1979, and was quoted as Clark stepped down in the 1983 leadership race;
"We've got him! We've got the s.o.b."
When Brian Mulroney
led the party to a majority government in 1984, Hees was named Minister of Veterans Affairs
. Hees retired from politics in 1988. In 1989 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada
.
There is a veterans wing at Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
bearing his name, and in close proximity to the relocated Crescent School
he attended as a child.
Queen's Privy Council for Canada
The Queen's Privy Council for Canada ), sometimes called Her Majesty's Privy Council for Canada or simply the Privy Council, is the full group of personal consultants to the monarch of Canada on state and constitutional affairs, though responsible government requires the sovereign or her viceroy,...
, OC
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
(June 17, 1910 - June 11, 1996) was a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
.
Born in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
to a patrician family, Hees earned a playboy image during his youth (nicknamed Gorgeous George), but then became a stalwart member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
. He was educated at the exclusive Crescent School
Crescent School
Crescent School is an independent elementary and secondary boys school in Toronto, Canada. Established in 1913 by John William James, the school was situated in several locations in its early years. In 1933, Susan Denton Massey, the aunt of Governor General Vincent Massey, gifted land to the...
in Toronto, Trinity College School
Trinity College School
Trinity College School is a coeducational, independent boarding/day school located in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. TCS was founded on May 1, 1865, more than 2 years prior to Canadian Confederation. It includes a Senior School for grades 9 to 12 and a Junior School for grades 5 to 8.Among its...
in Port Hope, Ontario
Port Hope, Ontario
Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, about east of Toronto and about west of Kingston. It is located at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County...
, the Royal Military College
Royal Military College of Canada
The Royal Military College of Canada, RMC, or RMCC , is the military academy of the Canadian Forces, and is a degree-granting university. RMC was established in 1876. RMC is the only federal institution in Canada with degree granting powers...
, student # 1976 (where he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Military Science in 1986), the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, and spent a year at Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
in 1933.
He was a noted athlete, winning championships in boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
and lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
at Cambridge, and the Grey Cup
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals...
with the Toronto Argonauts
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. The Toronto, Ontario based team was founded in 1873 and is one of the oldest existing professional sports teams in North America, after the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta...
Canadian football
Canadian football
Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...
team in December 1938. He served in the Canadian Army in North-West Europe during the Second World War. During the Battle of the Scheldt
Battle of the Scheldt
The Battle of the Scheldt was a series of military operations of the Canadian 1st Army, led by Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds. The battle took place in northern Belgium and southwestern Netherlands during World War II from 2 October-8 November 1944...
, he served as the Brigade Major of the 5th Canadian Infantry Brigade. On 1 November 1944, he volunteered to take over command of a company of The Calgary Highlanders
The Calgary Highlanders
The Calgary Highlanders is a Canadian Forces Land Force Primary Reserve infantry regiment, headquartered at Mewata Armouries in Calgary, Alberta, Canada...
when all their officers were killed or wounded after crossing the Walcheren Causeway
Battle of Walcheren Causeway
The Battle of Walcheren Causeway was an engagement of the Battle of the Scheldt between the 5th Canadian Infantry Brigade, elements of the British 52nd Infantry Division, notably the Glasgow Highlanders, and troops of the German 15th Army in 1944...
. He was later wounded by a sniper and was repatriated to Canada and discharged.
After placing second to David Croll
David Croll
David Arnold Croll, PC, QC was a Canadian politician.-Early life:Croll was born in a shtetl in Russia's Pale of Settlement and was brought to Canada with his family as a young boy, at which point his name was anglicized...
in the Toronto riding of Spadina
Spadina (electoral district)
Spadina was a Canadian electoral district that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1935 to 1988. It covered a portion of the western-central Toronto. Its name comes from the Spadina Avenue, which runs through the heart of the riding....
in the 1945 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1945
The Canadian federal election of 1945 was the 20th general election in Canadian history. It was held June 11, 1945 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 20th Parliament of Canada...
, he won election to the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
in a 1950 by-election in the nearby riding of Broadview
Broadview (electoral district)
Broadview was a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1935 to 1979. This riding was created in 1933 from parts of Toronto East and Toronto—Scarborough ridings....
. He was also President of the Progressive Conservative Party from 1953 to 1956.
With the election of the Diefenbaker government in 1957, Hees was named Minister of Transport
Minister of Transport (Canada)
The Minister of Transport is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's transportation regulatory and development department, Transport Canada...
, and oversaw the opening of the St Lawrence Seaway. In 1960, he was appointed Minister of Trade and Commerce
Minister of International Trade (Canada)
The Minister of International Trade is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet is the head of the federal government's international trade department and the provisions of treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement .The post was first established in 1983 as the Minister...
. During this period, Hees was regarded as the second most powerful man in the Tory party. However, in 1963, he had falling out with Diefenbaker, and became embroiled in the Munsinger Affair
Munsinger Affair
The Munsinger Affair was Canada's first national political sex scandal. It focused on Gerda Munsinger, an alleged East German prostitute and Soviet spy living in Ottawa who had slept with a number of cabinet ministers in John Diefenbaker's government....
and elected to sit out the 1963 election
Canadian federal election, 1963
The Canadian federal election of 1963 was held on April 8 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 26th Parliament of Canada. It resulted in the defeat of the minority Progressive Conservative government of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker.-Overview:During the Tories' last year in...
, which the Tories lost to Lester Pearson.
After considering a defection to the Liberals
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
, he became President of the Montreal Stock Exchange, he returned to Parliament in the 1965 election
Canadian federal election, 1965
The Canadian federal election of 1965 was held on November 8 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 27th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson was re-elected with a larger number of seats in the House...
as a PC, defeating Pauline Jewett
Pauline Jewett
Pauline Jewett, was a Canadian Member of Parliament.Born in St. Catharines, Ontario, she received a BA and a MA from Queen's University and a Ph.D in political science from Harvard University in 1949...
in the rural riding of Northumberland
Northumberland (Ontario electoral district)
Northumberland was a federal and provincial electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1917 to 1968 and from 1987 to 2003, ad in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1999 to 2007....
, and remained in the front rows of the opposition ranks for almost two decades.
He ran for the leadership of the PC Party at its 1967 leadership convention
Progressive Conservative leadership convention, 1967
The 1967 Progressive Conservative leadership election was held to choose a leader for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. The convention was held at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 4th and 9th, 1967...
, and placed fourth in a field of eleven on the first ballot. He remained for two further ballots before withdrawing, and supporting the eventual winner, Robert Stanfield
Robert Stanfield
Robert Lorne Stanfield, PC, QC was the 17th Premier of Nova Scotia and leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He is sometimes referred to as "the greatest prime minister Canada never had", and earned the nickname "Honest Bob"...
.
He was noted as being involved in a memorable case of battery, in which he forcefully ejected a campaign worker from his room, striking his head against the door. Hees tried to plead self-defence, which failed due to the lack of imminent harm anticipated by him (MacDonald v. Hees (1974), 46 D.L.R. (3d) (N.S.T.D.)).
He was not named to Cabinet during the Joe Clark
Joe Clark
Charles Joseph "Joe" Clark, is a Canadian statesman, businessman, and university professor, and former journalist and politician...
government in 1979, and was quoted as Clark stepped down in the 1983 leadership race;
"We've got him! We've got the s.o.b."
When Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
led the party to a majority government in 1984, Hees was named Minister of Veterans Affairs
Minister of Veterans Affairs (Canada)
The Minister of Veterans Affairs is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet whose position was created in 1944. The Department of Veterans Affairs Canada was split from the Department of Pensions and National Health and was given the responsibility of administering benefits and pensions...
. Hees retired from politics in 1988. In 1989 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
.
There is a veterans wing at Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, abbreviated SHSC and known simply as Sunnybrook, is an academic health sciences centre located in Toronto, Ontario....
bearing his name, and in close proximity to the relocated Crescent School
Crescent School
Crescent School is an independent elementary and secondary boys school in Toronto, Canada. Established in 1913 by John William James, the school was situated in several locations in its early years. In 1933, Susan Denton Massey, the aunt of Governor General Vincent Massey, gifted land to the...
he attended as a child.