Malcolm Wallace McCutcheon
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Malcolm Wallace McCutcheon, PC, CBE, QC, LL.D (18 May 1906 - 23 January 1969) was a Canadian lawyer, actuary and politician.
Wallace McCutcheon was born in London, Ontario. Together with Edward Plunkett Taylor and Colonel W. Eric Phillips, he was founder of Argus Corporation, an investment company that controlled a variety of businesses including farm machinery and Dominion grocery stores.
During World War II, he was member of the Wartime Prices and Trade Board.
He was appointed to the Canadian Senate on August 9, 1962 on the recommendation of Prime Minister John George Diefenbaker. McCutcheon sat in the caucus of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, and represented the senatorial division of Gormley, Ontario.
He served as Minister without Portfolio in Diefenbaker's government from his appointment to February 11, 1963, and then as Minister of Trade and Commerce until April 21, 1963, when the government was defeated.
McCutcheon ran for the leadership of the PC Party at the 1967 leadership convention, placing sixth out of eleven candidate on the first ballot, and withdrawing from the race after the second ballot.
McCutcheon ran as an unabashed "small-c conservative", i.e., a candidate of the party's right-wing. He had considerable support and financing from Bay Street, Toronto's financial district.
He campaigned aggressively against "big government" and "creeping socialism". He used dozens of attractive young women in his demonstration at the convention (dubbed "blonde goddesses" by the Toronto Star), and advocated a guaranteed annual income of $10,000 per adult as an alternative to the various social programs offered by different levels of government. He also advocated a "made-in-Canada" constitution to replace the British North America Acts and to guarantee the rights of Canadians, including language and cultural rights.
He resigned from the Senate on May 13, 1968 in order to contest the 1968 federal election as the Progressive Conservative candidate in the Ontario riding of York—Simcoe. He placed second with 13,100 votes (37.3% of the vote), compared to 15,906 won by John Roberts.
Malcolm McCutcheon died in 1969, aged 62.
