Philippe Deane Gigantès (August 16, 1923, Salonica – December 9, 2004, Montreal) was a veteran of the Second World War, journalist, war correspondent, POW of the Korean War, author, television commentator, Greek minister of culture, and Canadian senator.
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Gigantès served in the British Royal Navy during the Second World War. After the war, he became a journalist, working for the London Observer, in Greece, North Africa, and South Asia, from 1946 to 1961.
Whilst covering the Korean War he was taken prisoner, and spent 33 months in a North Korean prison camp. After his release he wrote the book I was a Captive in Korea and returned to his career in journalism. He became the Washington correspondent for the London Observer and the Globe and Mail.[1]
After his career in journalism he worked as a United Nations official and then as Secretary-General to King Constantine II of Greece. He was appointed to the post of Greek Minister of Culture. He later resumed his career in the media as a television commentator.[1]
In 1980 he ran for MP in the Canadian riding of Broadview-Greenwood, but was defeated by Bob Rae. In 1984 while working as an editorialist at the Montreal Gazette he was appointed to the Senate of Canada by Pierre Trudeau, for whom he had worked between 1978 and 1980 as a researcher then head of the Liberal Caucus Research Office. He served in the Senate until his 75th birthday in 1998.
While in the Senate he served on many committees but was particularly proud of his work as chair of an adhoc committee on the future of work. His report of this work was published by Parliament under the title Only Work Works and in French under the title "Il n'y a que le Travail qui Vaille.
| 1980 federal election : Broadview—Greenwood edit | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |||
| New Democratic Party | (x)Bob Rae | 12,953 | 40.37 | |||
| Liberal | Philip Deane Gigantes | 10,601 | 33.04 | |||
| Progressive Conservative | Michael Clarke | 7,677 | 23.92 | |||
| Libertarian | Walter Belej | 352 | 1.10 | |||
| Rhinoceros | Vicki Butterfield | 196 | 0.61 | |||
| Communist | Ed McDonald | 164 | 0.51 | |||
| N/A (National) | Don Hayward | 53 | 0.17 | |||
| Marxist-Leninist | Dorothy-Jean O'Donnell | 53 | 0.17 | |||
| Independent | Milorad Novich | 40 | 0.12 | |||
| Total valid votes | 32,089 | 100.00 | ||||
| Rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | 270 | |||||
| Turnout | 32,359 | 70.04 | ||||
| Electors on the lists | 46,204 | |||||
He was the author of 15 books including I Should Have Died,[1] Is the Free Trade Deal Really for You? (1988) and Power and Greed: A Short History of the World (2002).
In his book "Nice Work: The Continuing Scandal Of Canada's Senate", journalist and author Claire Hoy wrote that the late Philippe Gigantes, during a filibuster in the Senate, read one of his books into the record; another senator suggested that he did this to get the work translated into French by parliamentary staff responsible for Hansard.
Gigantès died on December 9, 2004 of prostate cancer. He left behind three daughters Eleni, Claire and Eve Marie, two grandsons and a granddaughter.