Edward Schreyer | |
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| 22nd Governor General of Canada | |
| In office January 22, 1979 – May 14, 1984 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Prime Minister | Pierre Trudeau Joe Clark |
| Preceded by | Jules Léger |
| Succeeded by | Jeanne Sauvé |
| 16th Premier of Manitoba | |
| In office July 15, 1969 – November 24, 1977 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Lieutenant Governor | Richard S. Bowles William J. McKeag Francis L. Jobin |
| Preceded by | Walter Weir |
| Succeeded by | Sterling Lyon |
| More... | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Edward Richard Schreyer (1935-12-21)December 21, 1935 (age 89) Beausejour, Manitoba, Canada |
| Political party | New Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | University of Manitoba (BA), (BEd), (MA) |
| Profession |
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Edward Richard Schreyer (born December 21, 1935)[1] is a Canadian politician, diplomat, and statesman who served as the 22ndgovernor general of Canada from 1979 to 1984. He previously served as the 16thpremier of Manitoba from 1969 to 1977.
Schreyer was born and educated inManitoba, and was first elected to theprovince's legislative assembly in 1958. He later moved into federal politics, winning a seat in theHouse of Commons, but returned to Manitoba in 1969 to become leader of theprovincial New Democratic Party (NDP). The party then won that year's provincial election and Schreyer became the 16thpremier of Manitoba, aged 33. In 1978 he was appointed Governor General byQueenElizabeth II on the recommendation ofPrime MinisterPierre Trudeau, to replaceJules Léger, and he occupied the post until succeeded byJeanne Sauvé in 1984. As the Queen's representative, he was praised for raising the stature ofUkrainian Canadians. Later, he served as Canada's High Commissioner toAustralia,Papua New Guinea, theSolomon Islands, andVanuatu. He then attempted, without success, to get elected to the House of Commons; he was the first person to run for election in Canada after serving as Governor General.
Schreyer was born inBeausejour, Manitoba, toAnglophone ethnicGerman-AustrianCatholic parents John Schreyer and Elizabeth Gottfried;[2] his maternal grandparents were Austrians who emigrated from westernUkraine. Schreyer attended Cromwell Elementary School and Beausejour Collegiate Secondary School, then United College andSt. John's College at theUniversity of Manitoba. There, he received aBachelor ofPedagogy in 1959, aBachelor of Education in 1962, aMaster of Arts in International Relations, and a second Master of Arts inEconomics in 1963. From 1962 to 1965, Schreyer served as a professor of International Relations at St. Paul's College.[3][4]
While pursuing his post-graduate degrees, Schreyer marriedLily Schultz, with whom he had two daughters, Lisa and Karmel, and two sons, Jason and Toban.[3]
In theManitoba election of 1958, Schreyer was elected to thelegislative assembly as a member of theCo-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), in the rural constituency ofBrokenhead; at twenty-two years of age, Schreyer was the youngest person ever elected to the assembly.[5] He held the riding until resigning in 1965 to run successfully for theHouse of Commons in Ottawa. He returned to provincial politics in 1969, and was on June 8elected leader of theNew Democratic Party of Manitoba (NDP),[4] the successor to the Manitoba CCF. He differed in some ways from the previous leaders of Manitoba's NDP: he came from a rural background and was not committed tosocialism as an ideology; he won the support of many centrist voters who had not previously identified with the party. Also, he was the first leader of the Manitoba CCF/NDP who was not ofBritish andProtestant descent.
Schreyer led his party to a watershed showing in the1969 provincial election. The NDP picked up 17 seats, vaulting them from third place in the legislature to first place. Schreyer himself returned to the legislature from the newly created northWinnipeg seat ofRossmere.
However, with 28 seats, the NDP was one seat short of a majority. Initially, the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives considered forming a coalition to lock the NDP out of power. Finally, LiberalLaurent Desjardins threw his support to Schreyer (and later joined the NDP after a period as an independent), making Schreyer the first social democratic premier in Manitoba's history.
Schreyer's premiership oversaw the amalgamation of the city of Winnipeg with its suburbs, introduced public automobile insurance, and significantly reduced medicare premiums.Re-elected in 1973, Schreyer maintained his position as premier, though the council was this time less innovative, the only policy of note being the mining tax legislation implemented in 1974. Schreyer also served as his own minister of finance between 1972 and 1975, and as the minister responsible forManitoba Hydro from 1971 to 1977. It was from those positions that Schreyer advised the Lieutenant Governor to authorise construction ofhydroelectric works instead of coal and gas burning electricity generators, and also put forward legislation that simultaneously eliminatedprovincial health care premiums and implemented home care and pharmacare.[4] Schreyer sometimes favoured policies different from those of thefederal NDP; in 1970, he supportedPrime MinisterPierre Trudeau's invocation of theWar Measures Act in response to theOctober Crisis, despite the opposition of federal NDP leaderTommy Douglas.
In the1977 provincial election, Schreyer's New Democrats were defeated by theProgressive Conservative Party underSterling Lyon. He remained leader of the NDP in opposition until 1979, when Trudeau offered him the office of Governor General.
On December 28, 1978, QueenElizabeth II, by commission under theroyal sign-manual andGreat Seal of Canada, appointed Pierre Trudeau's choice of Schreyer to succeedJules Léger as the Queen's representative. He was sworn in during a ceremony in theSenate chamber on January 22, 1979, making him the first Governor General from Manitoba, and, at the age of forty-three, the third youngest ever appointed, afterthe Marquess of Lorne in 1878 (33 years old), andthe Marquess of Lansdowne in 1883 (38 years old).[3]
As Governor General, Schreyer championed women's issues, the environment, andofficial bilingualism. During his first year in office, he established the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of thePersons Case, to recognize the efforts ofEmily Murphy and others to ensure that Canadian women would be constitutionally recognized as persons. In 1981 he instituted the Governor General's Conservation Awards and in 1983 he created the Edward Schreyer Fellowship inUkrainian Studies at theUniversity of Toronto. Also in 1983, he presided over the first Governor General's Canadian Study Conference, which has since been held every four years.[3] Schreyer investedTerry Fox as a companion of theOrder of Canada, travelling toPort Coquitlam,British Columbia, to present Fox with the order's insignia.[6][7] In 1980, he caused controversy when he hesitated to call an election after Prime MinisterJoe Clark advised him to do so. Schreyer also later suggested that he might have dissolved parliament at any point through 1981 and 1982, had the Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau tried to impose his constitutional proposals unilaterally.[5][8]
Schreyer's wish to connect with people in an open, friendly way conflicted with the "stiff, earnest public manner" expected of the Governor General, and he was thus a target of the media.[5] When Jeanne Sauvé succeeded him,Maclean's writerCarol Goar compared Sauvé to Schreyer's performance, stating that "she is expected to restore grace and refinement to Government House after five years of Edward Schreyer's earnest Prairie populism and lacklustre reign."
Upon retirement from the post of Governor General in 1984, Schreyer announced that he would donate his pension to the environmentalCanadian Shield Foundation;[5] unlike other former viceroys, he intended to remain in political and diplomatic life. On the same day he ceased to be Governor General, he was appointed by his successor to the office ofHigh Commissioner to Australia,Papua New Guinea, theSolomon Islands, andVanuatu for Her Majesty's Government in Canada.[9] He held those positions until 1988, when he returned to Winnipeg.
On returning to Canada, Schreyer was employed as a national representative ofHabitat for Humanity, an honorary director of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, and an honorary advisor to the Canadian Foundation for the Preservation ofChinese Cultural and Historical Treasures. He was also a founding member of the Winnipeg Library Foundation. Starting in 1989, he acted as a guest professor at universities aroundNorth America andEurope, lecturing on matters relating to resource geography, energy economics, and environmental impact.[4] On November 1, 2002,[4] Schreyer was appointed theChancellor ofBrandon University[10] and was re-elected to the position in early 2005 for a term that ended on October 31, 2008.
Schreyer, then 70 years old, ran in the2006 federal election as the NDP candidate in the riding ofSelkirk—Interlake.[11] It was the first time a former Governor General sought election to the Canadian House of Commons; previously, formerLieutenant Governors had been called to the Senate to sit as party members, and some former Governors General who hailed from the United Kingdom returned there to sit with party affiliations in theHouse of Lords, sometimes even serving in cabinet.[n 1] Schreyer lost to Conservative incumbentJames Bezan, receiving 37% of the vote to Bezan's 49%.[12] Earlier comments Schreyer had made describing homosexuality as an "affliction" were raised by his opponents in the campaign, as the NDP supportedsame-sex marriage. While campaigning in 2005, Schreyer said he supported same-sex marriage as the existing legislation did not force religious institutions to marry same-sex couples.[13]
Schreyer also waded into thefederal parliamentary dispute of 2008-09, in which the opposition parties threatened to revoke their confidence in the sitting prime minister,Stephen Harper. Schreyer said: "Any group that presumes to govern must be willing to face and seek the confidence of Parliament, and it mustn't be evaded and it mustn't be long avoided. I can't put it any more succinctly than that... I must come back to your use of the words, 'to duck a confidence vote'... that must simply not be allowed to happen."[14]
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January 22, 1979 – May 14, 1984:Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order of Canada (CC)[15] January 22, 1979 – May 14, 1984:Chancellor and Commander of the Order of Military Merit (CMM)[17] January 22, 1979 – May 14, 1984:Knight of Justice, Prior, and Chief Officer in Canada of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (KStJ)[18] January 22, 1979 – May 14, 1984:Chief Scout of Canada 1979 – :Honorary Member of the Royal Military College of Canada Club June 3, 1984 – :Member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada (PC)
July 13, 2000 – :Member of the Order of Manitoba (OM)[19] January 22, 1979:Canadian Forces' Decoration (CD) 1967:Canadian Centennial Medal 1977:Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal[20] 1992:Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada 2002:Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal 2012:Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
January 22, 1979 – May 14, 1984: Colonel ofthe Governor General's Horse Guards January 22, 1979 – May 14, 1984: Colonel of theGovernor General's Foot Guards January 22, 1979 – May 14, 1984: Colonel ofthe Canadian Grenadier Guards Manitoba: Edward Schreyer International Student Bursary,Brandon University,Brandon
Ontario: Edward Schreyer Fellowship,University of Toronto,Toronto |
The wavy lines symbolise the Brokenhead River, which flows near Schreyer's home town ofBeausejour, as well as theAssiniboine River, which runs throughWinnipeg, where Schreyer was located during his premiership of Manitoba; to the left of this division are the symbols of Manitoba (which lies to the west), and to the right are the symbols of Ontario (which lies to the east). The disc bearing a red cross is the emblem of theAnglican Church of Canada, upon which is the royal crown, representing Schreyer's service as the sovereign's representative. |
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Governor General of Canada January 22, 1979 – May 14, 1984 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Manitoba provincial government ofEdward Schreyer | ||
| Preceded by | Premier of Manitoba July 15, 1969 – November 24, 1977 | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of Canada | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Selkirk June 25, 1968 – June 25, 1969 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Springfield November 8, 1965 – June 25, 1968 | Succeeded by Electoral district abolished |
| Legislative Assembly of Manitoba | ||
| Preceded by New electoral district | Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba forRossmere June 25, 1969 – January 22, 1979 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by New electoral district | Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba forBrokenhead June 16, 1958 – November 8, 1965 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by Raymond Cecil Anderson | Canadian High Commissioner to Australia, Papua New Guinea, theSolomon Islands, andVanuatu May 14, 1984 – February 18, 1988 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chancellor ofBrandon University November 1, 2002 – October 31, 2008 | Succeeded by |
| Order of precedence | ||
| Preceded byaschief justice of Canada | Canadian order of precedence | Succeeded byas former governor general |
