John Crosbie

John Carnell Crosbie, PC, OC, ONL, QC (born January 30, 1931) is a retired provincial and federal politician and the 12th Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Crosbie has served as a provincial Cabinet minister under premiers Joey Smallwood and Frank Moores as well as a federal Cabinet minister during the governments of Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney.

Crosbie ran unsuccessfully for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1969, losing to Smallwood, and was also a candidate in the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada's 1983 leadership election, placing third. As a Cabinet minister under Mulroney, Crosbie was known to be outspoken and controversial.

Early life

Born in pre-Confederation St. John's Newfoundland, he is the son of Chesley Crosbie and the grandson of Sir John Chalker Crosbie. His father was leader of the Economic Union Party in the 1940s and a leading opponent of the campaign for Newfoundland to join Canadian Confederation.^[1]

Crosbie’s early education was in St. John's and at St. Andrew's College in Aurora, Ontario. He went on to study political science and economics at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where he graduated with first-class honours and won the University Medal in political science. Crosbie went on to study law at Dalhousie Law School in Halifax, Nova Scotia graduating in 1956 as the University Medalist in Law. He was awarded the Viscount Bennett Scholarship by the Canadian Bar Association as the outstanding law student for that year. He undertook postgraduate studies at the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies of the University of London and the London School of Economics in 1956-57 and was called to the Newfoundland Bar in 1957. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree by Dalhousie University in May 1984.^[2]

Local and provincial political career

Crosbie first entered politics as a member of the St. John's City Council, he served on council until he was appointed to the provincial cabinet of Liberal Premier Joey Smallwood in 1966. Crosbie was sworn in as Minister of Municipal and Housing, and soon after won a seat in the House of Assembly. As Minister he was responsible for the creation of the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation.

In 1967, Crosbie became Minister of Health and was instrumental in creating the Newfoundland Medicare Commission and the framework for the Newfoundland Medicare Plan.^[2] Smallwood's government had been in power since 1949, and the Premier was trying to rejuvenate his cabinet by bringing in new blood. Smallwood's authoritarian style and refusal to allow a younger generation to take power frustrated Crosbie and other young ministers, such as Clyde Wells.^[3]

In 1969, Smallwood announced his retirement from politics. However when Crosbie, who had resigned from caucus, became the apparent front runner to succeed him as leader Smallwood decided to run for the leadership of the party. Smallwood won the leadership race and Crosbie crossed the floor to join the opposition Progressive Conservative Party, led by Frank Moores.

The Progressive Conservatives were now seen as a viable alternative to the Liberal Party, and in 1972 Crosbie helped the Tories defeat Smallwood and come to power.^[3] In Moore's government Crosbie held the portfolios of Minister of Finance, President of the Treasury Board, and Minister of Economic Development; Minister of Fisheries and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs; Minister of Mines and Energy; and Government House Leader. He left provincial politics in 1976.^[2]

Federal political career

Crosbie moved to federal politics, winning the seat of St. John's West in the Canadian House of Commons in a by-election on October 18, 1976.^[4] When Joe Clark's Progressive Conservatives formed a minority government after the 1979 general election, Crosbie became Minister of Finance.^[2] He presented a tough budget that included tax increases in what Crosbie quipped was "short term pain for long term gain." A Motion of No Confidence on the budget brought the Clark government down on December 13, 1979, resulting in a new election which the Tories lost. Clark's government would last a total of 9 months less a day. Crosbie famously described it in his own inimitable way: "Long enough to conceive, just not long enough to deliver."

Though a leadership convention was not called following their defeat at the polls, Crosbie felt that a convention would be held in the near future. In 1981 he quietly organized a team for his leadership bid, while making sure not to undermine Clark's leadership. At the party's general meeting, held in Winnipeg, in 1983, 66.9% of delegates voted against holding a leadership convention. Clark felt however that he did not have clear mandate from the riding associations and recommended that the party executive hold a leadership convention at the earliest possible time, of he would be a candidate in.^[5]

A leadership convention was called for later that year and Crosbie announced candidacy. At the convention he placed third behind Brian Mulroney and Clark. While Crosbie may have been the most popular of the candidates, he was hurt by his inability to speak French. His response that he did not know how to speak Chinese either was not well received. Less notable was the failure of the "John Crosbie blimp" to operate properly during his campaign's demonstration on the floor of the convention.

After Trudeau retired in 1984 and was replaced by John Turner, Mulroney led the Tories to power in the 1984 federal election. Crosbie was named Minister of Justice in Mulroney's first cabinet. In 1985, while justice minister, he attracted attention when, in a heated moment during parliamentary debate, he told Liberal Member of Parliament Sheila Copps "Just quieten down, baby." This remark was the motivation for the choice of title for her autobiography, Nobody's Baby.

In 1986, he was named Minister of Transport. He became Minister for International Trade in 1988, shortly after the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement was negotiated. A lifelong supporter of free trade with the United States, Crosbie actively promoted the agreement in the that year's federal election, which was primarily fought on the issue. Crosbie was also a supporter of redress for Japanese Canadians interned during World War Two - in September 1988 the Mulroney government made its historic apology in the House of Commons and compensated each surviving internee with $18,000. In 1990, Crosbie proposed the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO).^[6]

At a fundraising dinner in Victoria, British Columbia in 1990, Crosbie took another dig at Sheila Copps by saying that she made him think of the song lyrics, "Pass the Tequila, Sheila, and lay down and love me again." Crosbie finished his career as Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, and did not run for re-election in 1993.

He would later again rankle feminists and progressives with his recurring references, in the late 1980s and early 1990s (during the 34th Canadian Parliament), to the "Four Horsewomen of the Apocalypse", in reference to Copps, fellow MPs Dawn Black, Mary Clancy, and National Action Committee on the Status of Women President Judy Rebick.

Life after federal politics

In 1997, he published his memoirs, entitled No Holds Barred: My Life in Politics (ISBN 0-7710-2427-4). Around this time, the feud between him and Copps had also cooled. Crosbie had devoted an entire chapter in his autobiography to his confrontations with Copps. In her second autobiography, Worth Fighting For, Copps had Crosbie write an introduction in which he says "I write this Introduction to her new book as a tribute to a feisty, sometimes ferocious, feminist protagonist, never shy or retiring but redoubtable political personality. She was a constant thorn in my side while she was in Opposition, but her marriage to my fellow Newfoundlander Austin Thorne has made her more serene and has calmed her sometimes volcanic and partisan excesses".

Crosbie remained in the Progressive Conservative Party until its dissolution in 2003. Despite his earlier opposition to the Canadian Alliance, he did not oppose the merger of the two parties and joined the new Conservative Party of Canada. In 2004, he served as an advisor to Tony Clement's unsuccessful campaign for the leadership of the new party.^[7] In the 2004 federal election, he publicly considered running for the Conservatives against Liberal incumbent John Efford in the Newfoundland riding of Avalon, but ultimately decided against doing so.^[8]

From 1994 until 2008, he has served as Chancellor of Memorial University of Newfoundland. In 1998, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Crosbie continued to practise law with the law firm of Cox & Palmer in St. John's until his current appointment.^[2]

Lieutenant Governor

On February 4, 2008, Governor General Michaëlle Jean, on the advice of Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, appointed John Crosbie as Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador, succeeding Edward Roberts.^[9] As Lieutenant Governor Crosbie drew sharp criticism for wearing a sealskin coat to several official events during the Royals' visit to Newfoundland in November 2009 and for saying that the coat was a statement in support of the annual seal hunt.^[10]

Memorable quotations

• "Why are you yelling at me? I didn't take the fish from the God damn water, so don't go abusing me."^[11]

• "They don't need to go berserk. Trying to batter on doors to frighten me. In the first place, I don't frighten. (Referring to protesters outside of his press conference on the Cod moratorium.) ^[12]

• "Americans were far more popular in Newfoundland than Canadians, so I was never hung up about the United States. There's always seemed to be a hang up with the Toronto cultural literati about the US. But that's never been the feeling in Newfoundland and Atlantic Canada."^[13]

• "Someday we're going to have a North American continent that's an economic union. That's inevitable. These economic forces are there, and government policy can't stop them. It's only a question of, How do you get into a more secure position? They're next door and geography dictates. Like it or not, we're going up or down with the US."^[14]

• "No, and I'm goddamned not going to either! I'll tell you that, and I'm telling you that there isn't one person in the whole goddamn government who's read it. I'm the only one honest enough to say so... At this stage of my life I don't have to kiss anybody's ass, I can say what I goddamn well like." (on reading the 1988 Free-Trade Agreement)^[15]

• "it is better to be honest and sincere in one language than a twister, a trickster and a twit in two." (referring to his own unilingualism and Trudeau's biligualism) ^[16]

• "No, I don't speak Mandarin Chinese either." (his response when asked if not speaking French would hinder his ability to be Prime Minister)

Reference No Holds Barred - John Crosbie's autobiography

References

External links

• John Crosbie - Parliament of Canada biography
• Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador - Official site