Fraser stepped down as fisheries minister after the tainted tuna scandal of 1985, but rather than fade from the spotlight, he took on the Commons leadership role a year later and leaves a solid record of achievement
John Fraser, former MP and Speaker of the House of Commons, holds a news conference in Ottawa on Feb. 9, 2000.John Fraser didn’t initially want the job that is now key to his political legacy. In 1986, a year after he quit his post as Brian Mulroney’s fisheries minister over his role in a scandal involving tainted tuna, the opportunity arose for him to run for House of Commons Speaker.
Mr. Fraser’s name stood and he won, beating 39 other MPs. He became the first Speaker elected by secret ballot, ending the routine of the prime minister nominating an MP for the approval of other MPs. Today such elections are routine.and directing its management, as well as fulfilling ceremonial duties.
“I loved John Fraser a lot,” she said. “He became, for me, something of a mentor, definitely a friend.” Greg Fergus, the current Commons Speaker, was a teenage page in the House during Mr. Fraser’s run as Speaker. He remembers the guidance Mr. Fraser gave to the pages, students from across Canada who provide services to MPs in the Commons.nice to everybody you meet. Yes, of course, to MPs. But he said be nice to the cleaning staff, to the guards, to the people who work in the journals branch,” Mr. Fergus recalled in an interview.
Mr. Fraser was a mentor on how to do politics right, Mr. Watson said, adding that the elder politician taught him to accept the fact that you are not always right, and the person you are debating is not always wrong, and that people largely get into politics for the right reason. “He was such a decent individual,” Mr. Watson said.
In 1959, he met Cate Findlay in Vancouver through mutual friends. They shared a love of skiing, and he invited her to accompany him to Mount Baker in Washington State. They went in Mr. Fraser’s two-seater car so they didn’t have to give anyone else a ride and could get to the slopes more quickly, according to Mary Fraser. In 1960, they were married in the Ottawa-area town of Carleton Place, her hometown.
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