Warner Jorgenson
Encyclopedia
Warner Herbert Jorgenson (26 March 1918 – 30 July 2005) was a Canadian
politician
in Manitoba
. He served as a Progressive Conservative
member of the federal House of Commons
from 1957 to 1968, and as a Progressive Conservative
member of the Manitoba Legislature from 1969 to 1981. From 1977 to 1981, he was a cabinet minister in the provincial government of Sterling Lyon
.
, Saskatchewan
, the son of George Jorgenson and Hilma Naslund, Jorgenson attended school at Ste-Elizabeth, Manitoba and Dominion City, Manitoba
before becoming a farmer at Ste-Elizabeth.
Jorgenson served overseas with the Canadian Army from 1940 to 1946, and worked as a farmer on returning to Canada. He also served as President of the Riverview Golf and Country Club, and was an Honorary President of the Valley Agricultural Society.
, defeating longtime Liberal
MP
Rene Jutras
by 250 votes in the southeastern Manitoba riding of Provencher
. In the election of 1958
, he was re-elected by a greater margin over Liberal Rene Prefontaine. He was not called to join John Diefenbaker
's cabinet, but became parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Agriculture in 1960.
Jorgenson was re-elected in the election of 1962
and the election of 1963
, defeating Liberal Stan Roberts
on both occasions. In the 1965 election
, he defeated Liberal Gordon Barkman by about 1,000 votes. He was defeated in the 1968 election
by Mark Smerchanski
, a leading organizer in the provincial Liberal party.
. He did not serve in the cabinet of Walter Weir
. He was easily re-elected in the provincial election of 1969
, despite the Tories losing power to the NDP
.
Jorgenson was again re-elected without difficulty in the election of 1973
and the election of 1977
. The Tories regained power under Sterling Lyon
on the latter occasion, and Jorgenson was called into cabinet on 24 October 1977 as government House Leader
and Minister without Portfolio
. On 20 October 1978, he was promoted to Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs with responsibility for the Rent Stabilization Board and the Office of Superintendent for Insurance. Following a cabinet shuffle on January 16, 1981, he was named Minister of Government Services with responsibility for the Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation. He was known in the legislature as an aggressive debater.
He was not a candidate in the 1981 election
, and did not seek public office again.
During his final years, Warner Jorgenson had Alzheimer's disease
. He died at Winnipeg's Deer Lodge Centre
on 30 July 2005 at the age of 87.
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
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
in Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
. He served as a Progressive Conservative
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
member of the federal House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
from 1957 to 1968, and as a Progressive Conservative
Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba
The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba is the only right wing political party in Manitoba, Canada. It is also the official opposition party in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.-Origins and early years:...
member of the Manitoba Legislature from 1969 to 1981. From 1977 to 1981, he was a cabinet minister in the provincial government of Sterling Lyon
Sterling Lyon
Sterling Rufus Lyon, PC, OC was a lawyer, cabinet minister, and the 17th Premier of Manitoba, Canada from 1977 to 1981. His government introduced several fiscally-conservative measures, and was sometimes seen as a local version of the government of Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom...
.
Early life
Born in CanoraCanora, Saskatchewan
Canora is a town located at the junction of highways No. 5 and 9 in east-central Saskatchewan, north of the city of Yorkton. Centrally located on the corners of four adjacent rural municipalities, the community is home to approximately 2,400 residents and draws upon a substantial trading area...
, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, the son of George Jorgenson and Hilma Naslund, Jorgenson attended school at Ste-Elizabeth, Manitoba and Dominion City, Manitoba
Dominion City, Manitoba
Dominion City is a community in the Rural Municipality of Franklin in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It is located in south central Manitoba about 20 kilometres from the Canada-U.S. border....
before becoming a farmer at Ste-Elizabeth.
Jorgenson served overseas with the Canadian Army from 1940 to 1946, and worked as a farmer on returning to Canada. He also served as President of the Riverview Golf and Country Club, and was an Honorary President of the Valley Agricultural Society.
Federal politics
He was first elected to the House of Commons in the general election of 1957Canadian federal election, 1957
The Canadian federal election of 1957 was held June 10, 1957, to select the 265 members of the House of Commons of Canada. In one of the great upsets in Canadian political history, the Progressive Conservative Party , led by John Diefenbaker, brought an end to 22 years of Liberal rule, as the...
, defeating longtime Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Rene Jutras
René Jutras
René Jutras was a Canadian politician.Born in Letellier, Manitoba, the son Joseph Jutras and Clara Blais, he attended St. Boniface College and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Manitoba. During World War II, he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force...
by 250 votes in the southeastern Manitoba riding of Provencher
Provencher (electoral district)
Provencher is a federal electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1871. It is largely a rural district, the largest community being the city of Steinbach, Manitoba.-Demographics:-History:...
. In the election of 1958
Canadian federal election, 1958
The Canadian federal election of 1958 was the 24th general election in Canada's history. It was held to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 24th Parliament of Canada on March 31, 1958, just nine months after the 23rd election...
, he was re-elected by a greater margin over Liberal Rene Prefontaine. He was not called to join John Diefenbaker
John Diefenbaker
John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...
's cabinet, but became parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Agriculture in 1960.
Jorgenson was re-elected in the election of 1962
Canadian federal election, 1962
The Canadian federal election of 1962 was held on June 18, 1962 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 25th Parliament of Canada...
and the election of 1963
Canadian federal election, 1963
The Canadian federal election of 1963 was held on April 8 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 26th Parliament of Canada. It resulted in the defeat of the minority Progressive Conservative government of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker.-Overview:During the Tories' last year in...
, defeating Liberal Stan Roberts
Stan Roberts
Stan Roberts was a Canadian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba between 1958 and 1962, and ran for the leadership of the Manitoba Liberal Party in 1961...
on both occasions. In the 1965 election
Canadian federal election, 1965
The Canadian federal election of 1965 was held on November 8 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 27th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson was re-elected with a larger number of seats in the House...
, he defeated Liberal Gordon Barkman by about 1,000 votes. He was defeated in the 1968 election
Canadian federal election, 1968
The Canadian federal election of 1968 was held on June 25, 1968, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 28th Parliament of Canada...
by Mark Smerchanski
Mark Smerchanski
Mark G. Smerchanski was a Canadian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1962 to 1966, and a member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1968 to 1972...
, a leading organizer in the provincial Liberal party.
Provincial politics
Jorgenson then shifted to provincial politics, and was easily elected for the rural riding of Morris in the 1969 by-electionBy-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
. He did not serve in the cabinet of Walter Weir
Walter Weir
Walter C. Weir was a politician who served as the 15th Premier of Manitoba from 1967 to 1969.Weir was born in High Bluff, Manitoba, and worked as a funeral director. He served as chairman of the Minnedosa Hospital Board from 1955 to 1957, and of the Minnedosa Town Council from 1958 to 1959...
. He was easily re-elected in the provincial election of 1969
Manitoba general election, 1969
The Manitoba General Election of June 25, 1969 was held to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was a watershed moment in the province's political history. The social-democratic New Democratic Party emerged for the first time as the largest party in...
, despite the Tories losing power to the NDP
New Democratic Party of Manitoba
The New Democratic Party of Manitoba is a social-democratic political party in Manitoba, Canada. It is the provincial wing of the federal New Democratic Party, and is a successor to the Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation...
.
Jorgenson was again re-elected without difficulty in the election of 1973
Manitoba general election, 1973
The Manitoba General Election of June 28, 1973 was held to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. It was won by the social-democratic New Democratic Party, which took 31 of 57 seats...
and the election of 1977
Manitoba general election, 1977
The Manitoba general election of October 11, 1977 was held to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. It was won by the Progressive Conservative Party, which took 33 seats out of 57...
. The Tories regained power under Sterling Lyon
Sterling Lyon
Sterling Rufus Lyon, PC, OC was a lawyer, cabinet minister, and the 17th Premier of Manitoba, Canada from 1977 to 1981. His government introduced several fiscally-conservative measures, and was sometimes seen as a local version of the government of Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom...
on the latter occasion, and Jorgenson was called into cabinet on 24 October 1977 as government House Leader
House Leader
In Canada, each political party with representation in the House of Commons has a House Leader who is a front bench Member of Parliament and an expert in parliamentary procedure...
and Minister without Portfolio
Minister without Portfolio
A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...
. On 20 October 1978, he was promoted to Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs with responsibility for the Rent Stabilization Board and the Office of Superintendent for Insurance. Following a cabinet shuffle on January 16, 1981, he was named Minister of Government Services with responsibility for the Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation. He was known in the legislature as an aggressive debater.
He was not a candidate in the 1981 election
Manitoba general election, 1981
The Manitoba general election of November 17, 1981 was held to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. It was won by the opposition New Democratic Party, which took 34 of 57 seats. The governing Progressive Conservative Party took the remaining 23, while the...
, and did not seek public office again.
During his final years, Warner Jorgenson had Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
. He died at Winnipeg's Deer Lodge Centre
Deer Lodge Centre
Deer Lodge Centre is a hospital specializing in treatment of Veterans in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The hospital began as a convalescent hospital for returning World War I soldiers in 1916 and was located in Silver Heights along west Portage Avenue...
on 30 July 2005 at the age of 87.