Hugh Austin Curtis (October 3, 1932 – May 27, 2014) was a sales manager and political figure in

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. He represented

Saanich and the Islands Saanich and the Islands was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between t ...

in the

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia () is the deliberative assembly of the Legislature of British Columbia, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The other component of the Legislature is the lieutenant governor of British Columbi ...

from 1972 to 1986 as a Progressive Conservative then

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed in the 1920s and 1930s by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made t ...

member.

Biography

He was born in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...

, the son of Austin Ivor Curtis and Helen Shepherd, and was educated there. In 1957, he married Sheila Diane Halford. Curtis served on the municipal council for Saanich and was mayor from 1964 to 1973. He left the Progressive Conservatives to join the Social Credit party in 1974. Curtis served in the provincial cabinet as Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing (1975 to 1978), as Provincial Secretary and Minister of Government Services (1978 to 1979 and then again in 1986), and as Minister of Finance (1979 to 1986). In 2002, he was awarded the Freeman of Saanich distinction. He died of cancer on May 27, 2014, at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtis, Hugh Austin 1932 births 2014 deaths British Columbia Conservative Party MLAs British Columbia Social Credit Party MLAs Deaths from cancer in British Columbia Ministers of finance of British Columbia 20th-century mayors of places in British Columbia Members of the Executive Council of British Columbia Politicians from Victoria, British Columbia 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia