Norman Chamberlist

Norman (Norm) Chamberlist (1918 - 2001) was a Canadian politician, who served on Whitehorse City Council and the Yukon Territorial Council.^[1]

First elected in the 1961 election,^[1] he was forced to resign the seat within a few months after a firm in which he was part owner won a contract from the council, placing Chamberlist in a conflict of interest.^[2] Herbert Boyd, the only candidate to file nomination papers when a by-election was called, was acclaimed to the seat in early 1962.^[2]

Chamberlist stood for office again in the 1967 election, and won election that year.^[3] In his speech on election night, he called on the Parliament of Canada to extend greater power to the territorial council.^[3] In 1968, he was an outspoken opponent of the city of Whitehorse installing parking meters, even hiring a lawyer to represent all citizens of the city in challenging their parking tickets.^[4]

Shortly before the 1970 election, Chamberlist opposed a federal government report on the Yukon, on the grounds that Canada had been granted administratorship rights over the territory but actual legal ownership still rested with the British Empire.^[5]

He was reelected in the 1970 election, and was one of the first two councillors to be appointed to the new executive committee.^[6] This gave him ministerial responsibilities over health and welfare in the territory.^[7] Chamberlist and his fellow executive councillor Hilda Watson built a voting bloc with two other non-executive councillors, which gave them effective control over virtually all council business.^[8] He was dropped from the executive committee in 1973, and was succeeded by Clive Tanner.^[7]

He did not run for reelection to the territorial council in the 1974 election, and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. He was a British Columbia Liberal Party candidate in Vancouver East in that province's 1975 election, but did not win.

He died in 2001.

References