Erhart Regier (January 15, 1916 – October 22, 1976) was a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
politician, who represented the
electoral district of
Burnaby—Coquitlam in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
from 1953 to 1962.
Regier was born in
Laird, Saskatchewan to a Mennonite family. After working as a teacher and founding a cooperative association general store,
he was elected as a
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; french: Fédération du Commonwealth Coopératif, FCC); from 1955 the Social Democratic Party of Canada (''french: Parti social démocratique du Canada''), was a federal democratic socialistThe foll ...
(CCF) MP in the
1953 election. When the CCF was succeeded by the
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* ...
(NDP) in 1961, he joined its caucus. The following year, Regier resigned his House seat on August 20, 1962 so that federal NDP leader
Tommy Douglas
Thomas Clement Douglas (20 October 1904 – 24 February 1986) was a Scottish-born Canadian politician who served as seventh premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 and Leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971. A Baptist min ...
could contest a safe seat in a
by-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election use ...
. He then stood as the NDP's candidate in
Fraser Valley
The Fraser Valley is a geographical region in southwestern British Columbia, Canada and northwestern Washington State. It starts just west of Hope in a narrow valley encompassing the Fraser River and ends at the Pacific Ocean stretching from the ...
in the
1963 election, in
Algoma West
Algoma West was a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1904 to 1968. It was created in 1903 from parts of Algoma riding.
The west riding of Algoma was defined to consist o ...
in the
1965 election and in
Prince George—Peace River
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. ...
in the
1968 election, but was not re-elected to the House in any of the later elections.
Regier was the first Mennonite elected to the Canadian Parliament.
[ In his maiden speech, he invoked his Mennonite background as part of an appeal for the abolition of the Canadian military, arguing that Canada's defence budget should instead go to the United Nations' military operations budget and the other half to humanitarian aid. However, Regier was also critical of his Mennonite community, which he perceived as being overly-reluctant to participate in the Canadian political process. After retiring from Parliament, he wrote in the ''Canadian Mennonite'' that, in liberal democracies like Canada, “our ennoniteleaders of the past have failed to meet their responsibilities in that they clung to the old attitudes instead of attempting to participate and to help the children of God.”][Erhart Regier, “A Mennonite in a Democratic Society,” ''The Canadian Mennonite'', November 23, 1962, 7.]
References
External links
*
1916 births
1976 deaths
Canadian Mennonites
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MPs
20th-century Canadian politicians
New Democratic Party MPs
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from British Columbia
{{BritishColumbia-politician-stub