Norman Otto Hipel was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 politician, noted for his service as Minister of Labour

Ministry of Labour (Ontario)

The Ministry of Labour is responsible for labour issues in the Canadian province of Ontario.The Ministry of Labour and its agencies are responsible for employment equity and rights, occupational health and safety, and labour relations....

 for Ontario in the cabinet of Mitchell Hepburn

Mitchell Hepburn

Mitchell Frederick Hepburn was the 11th Premier of Ontario, Canada, from 1934 to 1942. He was the youngest Premier in Ontario history, appointed at age 37....

. He served as MLA for Waterloo South

Waterloo South

Waterloo South was a federal electoral district and a provincial electoral district.Federally, it was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1968. It was located in the province of Ontario...

.

Personal background and career

Hipel was born in rural Waterloo Township, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 near Breslau, Ontario

Breslau, Ontario

Breslau is a community located within the township of Woolwich, part of the Waterloo Regional Municipality in Ontario Canada. Separated from the city of Kitchener by the Grand River, Breslau is named after the former German city of Breslau, now Wrocław, capital of Poland's Lower Silesia.It is...

 on 21 March 1890, to parents Henry Hipel and Louisa Pelz. He received formal education at the Riverbank School and the Breslau Public School, but he left school early to help support his family, and began work as a store clerk in a Kitchener, Ontario

Kitchener, Ontario

The City of Kitchener is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It was the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916. The city had a population of 204,668 in the Canada 2006 Census...

 dry goods store. He returned home in 1906 to learn carpentry from his father, and by 1911 had become a building contractor and. In 1913 he moved to Preston, Ontario

Preston, Ontario

Preston is a community in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Prior to its amalgamation with the city of Galt, the town of Hespeler and the village of Blair to form the new city in 1973, it was an independent town. It is located near the confluence of the Grand River and Speed River...

, and in 1920 started his own construction company, N. O. Hipel Ltd, with ten employees, five horses and a portable sawmill

Sawmill

A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

. The company specialized in buildings that required large, uninterrupted floor space. In 1928 his company developed patents on barn and skating rink construction, and built a large number of arenas including the Hespeler Memorial Arena erected in 1947.

Hipel was a member of the Preston Board of Trade, the Ontario Club and was a president and director of the South Waterloo Agricultural Society. He was also a director on the Waterloo County Health Association board, and at the time of his death was also the Preston representative for the South Waterloo Memorial Hospital, now known as the Cambridge Memorial Hospital.

Politics

Hipel began his political career in 1921 when he ran for and was elected to the Preston town council. In 1922 he became the town's reeve, and served as mayor in 1923 and 1924. In 1930 he ran successfully as the Ontario Liberal Party

Ontario Liberal Party

The Ontario Liberal Party is a provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has formed the Government of Ontario since the provincial election of 2003. The party is ideologically aligned with the Liberal Party of Canada but the two parties are organizationally independent and...

 candidate to represent Waterloo South in the Ontario Legislature, and was re-elected in 1934. He served as Speaker of the House from 1935 to 1938, and was chosen to represent Ontario at the Coronation

Coronation

A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...

 of King George VI

George VI of the United Kingdom

George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...

 in 1937. In 1938 Hipel was appointed Minister of Labour for Ontario in the cabinet of Mitchell Hepburn. As Minister of Labour, he organized the Farm Service Force to help in the harvesting of crops during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and in 1939 he opened the Aircraft Mechanics Training School in Galt, where thousands were trained in radio operation and aircraft maintenance for the war effort. With help from the federal government, he also organized the War Emergency Training Program, providing education in manufacturing skilled required in the production of war materials. Hipel also served as Ontario Minister of Lands and Forests in 1941 and 1943. In this position, Hipel set aside forest lands and established a school at Dorset for the training of forest rangers. He also authorized the first large scale conservation project, known as the Ganaraska watershed area. In 1942 and 1943 he served as Provincial Secretary and Registrar of Ontario

Provincial Secretary and Registrar of Ontario

The Provincial Secretary and Registrar of Ontario was a senior position in the provincial cabinet of Ontario from before Canadian Confederation until the 1960s....

, and was elected President of the Ontario Liberal Association

Ontario Liberal Party

The Ontario Liberal Party is a provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has formed the Government of Ontario since the provincial election of 2003. The party is ideologically aligned with the Liberal Party of Canada but the two parties are organizationally independent and...

 in 1947. Hipel ran unsuccessfully in the 1948. He also ran, unsuccessfully, for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party

Ontario Liberal leadership conventions

Ballot-by-ballot results of leadership elections in the Ontario Liberal Party, a political party in the Province of Ontario, Canada.Note: Before 1919, the leaders of the Ontario Liberal Party were chosen by the party's elected Members of the Legislative Assembly...

in 1950 receiving only 12 votes on the first ballot.

External links and references

• City of Cambridge Hall of Fame Norman O. Hipel.