Sidney Spivak | |
|---|---|
| Member of theLegislative Assembly of Manitoba forRiver Heights | |
| In office June 23, 1966 – April 12, 1979 | |
| Preceded by | Maitland Steinkopf |
| Succeeded by | Gary Filmon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Sidney Joel Spivak (1928-05-23)May 23, 1928 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Died | July 8, 2002(2002-07-08) (aged 74) Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Party | Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba |
| Spouse | Mira Spivak |
| Alma mater | University of ManitobaHarvard University |
Sidney Joel Spivak,QC (May 23, 1928 – July 8, 2002) was aManitoba politician. He was aCabinet minister in the governments ofDufferin Roblin,Walter Weir andSterling Lyon,[1] and was himself leader of theProgressive Conservative Party of Manitoba (PCs) from 1971 to 1975.[2]
Sidney Joel Spivak was born to Jewish parents, Malick and Rose Spivak, inWinnipeg, and was educated at theUniversity of Manitoba andHarvard University. He worked as a barrister[2] and became Vice-President of Golden Age Beverages Limited and Mathers Investments Limited as well. In 1955, Spivak marriedMira Steele; they had three children together. He was namedQueen's Counsel in 1966.[3]
Spivak was first elected to theLegislative Assembly of Manitoba in the1966 provincial election, in the riding ofRiver Heights, which was then in far southwest Winnipeg.[4] AProgressive Conservative, Spivak was appointedMinister of Industry and Commerce in Dufferin Roblin's government. He continued to hold this position after Walter Weir becamepremier in 1967.[1]
Weir's Progressive Conservatives were defeated in the1969 election, although Spivak was easily re-elected in his own riding.[1] Two years later, he defeatedHarry Enns by 46 votes to become theparty's leader.
Ideologically, Spivak was aRed Tory (on theleft of the party). He represented an urban andprogressive wing within the party, and did not have the complete confidence of his caucus, which was dominated by moreright-wing figures. In the1973 election, Spivak presented himself as being to the right of PremierEdward Schreyer'sNew Democrats, but to the left of theLiberals underIsrael Asper. He specifically rejected Asper'slaissez-faire economic policies, and promised to govern as acentrist.
The Progressive Conservatives won 21 seats in the 1973 election, up one from their position at the dissolution of the assembly. Schreyer's New Democrats, however, were re-elected with a majority, and many PC members blamed Spivak for the party's loss. (Some have suggested that the Tory defeat was due in part toantisemitism.[5] This interpretation has never been verified, however, and has been rejected by some prominent Jewish figures in Manitoba.)
In 1975, former ministerSterling Lyon, who had not held office since 1969 at that point, challenged Spivak for the Progressive Conservative leadership. This challenge was extremely divisive, pitting Spivak's left-leaning ideology against Lyon'sconservatism and dividing the PC membership accordingly. There have also been suggestions that some of Lyon's supporters conducted an antisemitic "whispering campaign" against Spivak, suggesting that the party would be unable to form government under a Jewish leader.[5] Lyon, however, had several prominent Jews on his leadership campaign team.
When the delegates gathered on December 6, Lyon defeated Spivak by 57 votes. Shortly after the vote, Spivak claimed that the party would have difficulty being elected on a right-wing platform. Lyon led the PCs to victory at the1977 election, however, and Spivak was appointed as a Minister without Portfolio in the Lyon cabinet (also becoming co-chair of a Task Force on Government Organization and Economy). On October 20, 1978, he became theMinister of Government Services.[1]
Spivak resigned from the Manitoba legislature in 1979.[1] He ran for theProgressive Conservative Party of Canada in the federal riding ofWinnipeg—Fort Garry in that year'sfederal election. He lost toLiberalLloyd Axworthy, later a high-ranking federal cabinet minister, by 485 out of 45,757 votes.[6]
After his defeat in the 1979 federal election, Spivak did not seek further elected office and returned to business full-time. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he served as chair of theCanada-Israel Committee;[2] this organization opposed theOslo Peace Accord of 1993, although Spivak himself was subsequently a promoter of peace in theMiddle East. He also served on the Churchill Regional Health Authority Board in the late 1990s. Spivak wanted to be appointedLieutenant Governor of Manitoba in 1993 (he would have succeededGeorge Johnson, his former ministerial colleague in the Roblin and Weir governments), butPrime MinisterBrian Mulroney, throughGovernor GeneralRay Hnatyshyn, appointedYvon Dumont instead.
He served on the board of governors of the University of Manitoba and on the board of directors for theSaint Boniface Hospital.[2]
Sidney Spivak died of aheart attack in Winnipeg in 2002.[3] His widowMira Spivak was a member of theSenate of Canada from Manitoba from 1986 until she took mandatory retirement on her seventy-fifth birthday in 2009.[7]