Joseph Fred Hueglin (February 7, 1937 – July 5, 2022) was a Canadian politician who was a member of Parliament and a founder of the

Progressive Canadian Party The Progressive Canadian Party (PC Party) () was a minor centre-right federal political party in Canada. It was registered with Elections Canada, the government's election agency, on March 29, 2004. Under provisions of the Canada Elections Ac ...

. Born in

Stratford, Ontario Stratford is a city on the Avon River (Ontario), Avon River within Perth County, Ontario, Perth County in southwestern Ontario, Canada, with a 2021 Canadian census, 2021 population of 33,232 in a land area of . Stratford is the County seat, s ...

, Hueglin was elected to

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

in the riding of

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the Canada–United States border, border between the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York (s ...

as a member of the

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC; ) was a Centrism, centre to centre-right List of federal political parties in Canada, federal political party in Canada that existed from 1942 to 2003. From Canadian Confederation in 1867 unti ...

(PC). In

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

Hueglin was defeated by the Liberal candidate. Within the Progressive Conservative Party, Hueglin was, along with David Orchard, among the most vocal opponents of the 2003 merger of Canada's two prominent

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

parties, the Progressive Conservatives and the

Canadian Alliance The Canadian Alliance (), formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (), was a centre-right to right-wing federal political party in Canada that existed under that name from 2000 to 2003. The Canadian Alliance was the new name of the ...

, into the

Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC; , ), sometimes referred to as the Tories, is a Government of Canada, federal List of political parties in Canada, political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main Right-wing ...

. He expressed discomfort over the way the merger took place - which involved PC leader

Peter MacKay Peter Gordon MacKay (born September 27, 1965), a Canadian lawyer and politician, served as Member of Parliament (Canada), Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2015 and as Minister of Justice (Canada), Minister of Justice and Attorney General (20 ...

breaking an anti-merger promise he had made while campaigning to be the party leader. Hueglin also expressed discomfort over the "

neoconservative Neoconservatism (colloquially neocon) is a political movement which began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist Democratic Party along with the growing New Left and ...

" aspects of Alliance policy, which he feared might dominate the policies of the new party. In 2004, Hueglin became a lead organizer for the

, which he described as a

centrist Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

party.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hueglin, Joe 1937 births 2022 deaths Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs People from Stratford, Ontario Progressive Canadian Party politicians Canadian political party founders 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada