Dean Whiteway

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Dean Waldon Whiteway (born July 20, 1944) is a Canadian politician. He served in the Canadian House of Commons from 1974 to 1979, as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.

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[edit] Early life and career

Whiteway was born in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, and has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brandon University in Manitoba. He has taught at Providence Bible College and Seminary near Winnipeg.[1] Whiteway is a Mennonite Brethren, and a member of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.

[edit] Member of Parliament

Whiteway first ran for the House of Commons in the 1968 election as a Social Credit candidate in Dauphin, and finished fourth against Progressive Conservative Gordon Ritchie. He joined the Progressive Conservative Party after the election, and ran under its banner in Selkirk in the 1972 election. He narrowly lost to New Democrat Doug Rowland.

He was elected on his third attempt, defeating Rowland in a 1974 election rematch. The Liberal Party of Canada won a majority government in the 1974 election, and Whiteway entered parliament as a member of the official opposition. He was on the right-wing of his party, and opposed abortion, supported capital punishment, and spoke against federal funding for Planned Parenthood. On one occasion, he suggested that danger to a woman's health should be removed as permissible grounds for abortion.[2] He also gained some notoriety for pitching a tent on Parliament Hill to protest a post office closing in his riding.[3]

The Selkirk riding was eliminated by redistribution for the 1979 federal election, and Whiteway was forced to seek re-election in the more challenging riding of Winnipeg—Birds Hill. He lost to New Democratic Party candidate Bill Blaikie, despite a swing toward the Progressive Conservatives at the national level.

[edit] Reform Party activist

Whiteway campaigned for the "No" side in the 1992 Charlottetown Accord referendum.[4] He sought a return to the House of Commons in the 1993 election, after winning a four-person contest for the Reform Party nomination in Provencher.[5] Whiteway argued that the Reform Party was a natural home for evangelical Christians, and spoke of bringing "some moral fibre to Parliament".[6] He lost to Liberal David Iftody, and told reporters that he would probably not run for public office again.[7]

Whiteway was involved in abortive plans to create a provincial branch of the Reform Party in 1994. He indicated that he had no interest in becoming a candidate himself.[8]

[edit] Headmaster

Whiteway moved to British Columbia after the 1993 election. In 1998, he accepted a position as headmaster of Faith Heritage, a private and non-denominational Christian school in Syracuse, New York.[9] As of 2007, he is headmaster of Plumstead Christian School in Plumsteadville, Pennsylvania.[10]

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Jeffrey Simpson, "Reform Party invades Epp country and takes the moral high ground", Globe and Mail, 19 June 1992, A18.
  2. ^ Jeffrey Simpson, "Reform Party invades Epp country and takes the moral high ground", Globe and Mail, 19 June 1992, A18.
  3. ^ David Roberts, "Reform's prospects brighten", Globe and Mail, 12 January 1993, A4.
  4. ^ George Oake, "Skeptical Manitobans lean towards No again", Toronto Star, 15 October 1992, A16.
  5. ^ Jeffrey Simpson, "Reform Party invades Epp country and takes the moral high ground", Globe and Mail, 19 June 1992, A18. One of his opponents was J.D. Lees, who was said to have suffered damage through rumours that he belonged to a New Age religious group. Lees denied these rumours. See David Roberts, "Politician's faith fundamental issue", Globe and Mail, 28 December 1992, A4.
  6. ^ David Roberts, "Fundamentalists find home in Reform", Globe and Mail, 28 December 1992, A1.
  7. ^ Maureen Houston, "Provencher", Winnipeg Free Press, 26 October 1993.
  8. ^ Paul Samyn, "Reform staying out of provincial race, national party says", Winnipeg Free Press, 14 April 1994.
  9. ^ Whiteway initially had some difficulties with immigration. See Andrena Irvin, "Headmaster entangled in immigration red tape", Post-Standard Syracuse, NY, 14 April 1998, B1.
  10. ^ Plumsteadville Christian School Family Handbook 2006-07, Plumsteadville Christian School, accessed 31 March 2007.