Earl James Rutledge (August 22, 1894 in Rutledge,

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– November 4, 1974) was a politician in

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

, Canada. He served in the

Legislative Assembly of Manitoba The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba () is the deliberative assembly of the Manitoba Legislature in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly at List of Manitoba genera ...

from 1927 to 1948, initially as a Conservative and later as a Progressive Conservative after the party changed its name.

Biography

The son of John Rutledge and Elizabeth Sullivan, Rutledge was educated at Queen's University in

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, earning a medical degree. He worked as a physician and surgeon. In 1919, Rutledge married Gladys Williams. He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1927 provincial election, defeating Progressive candidate N.W.P. Shuttleworth by fourteen votes in the constituency of Minnedosa. Shuttleworth actually won a plurality of votes over Rutledge on the first count, but lost the seat following transfers from the third-place candidate. (Manitoba elections were determined by preferential balloting during this period.) Rutledge was returned again in the 1932 election, defeating

Liberal-Progressive Liberal-Progressive was a label used by a number of candidates in Canadian elections between 1925 and 1953. In federal and Ontario politics there was no Liberal-Progressive Party, as such. The term generally referred to candidates endorsed by Lib ...

candidate Neil Cameron by the increased margin of sixteen votes. He won his first convincing victory in the 1936 provincial election, defeating Liberal-Progressive candidate Henry Rungay by almost 300 votes. The Conservative Party joined the Liberal-Progressives in a

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

in 1940, and Rutledge served as a backbench supporter of

John Bracken John Bracken (22 June 1883 – 18 March 1969) was a Canadian agronomist and politician who was the 11th and longest-serving premier of Manitoba (1922–1943) and later the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (1942–194 ...

's government. He again defeated Henry Rungay in the 1941 provincial election, again by an increased margin. In

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, he defeated a candidate of the

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. He resigned his seat on July 13, 1948.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rutledge, Earl 1894 births 1974 deaths Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba MLAs 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba