John Patrick Nowlan (10 November 1931 – 25 April 2020) was a Canadian politician from Nova Scotia. Nowlan served as a Progressive Conservative

backbench In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of t ...

Member of Parliament for the riding of

Annapolis Valley—Hants Annapolis ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the county seat of Anne Arundel County and its only incorporated city. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of W ...

from 1965 to 1993.

Early life

Born in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Nowlan was the son of

Diefenbaker John George Diefenbaker (September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 and 1979 to lead the party to an election v ...

-era Minister of Finance

George Nowlan George Clyde Nowlan (14 August 1898 – 31 May 1965) was a Canadian Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister. A member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, he served as Minister of Finance in the government of John Diefenbake ...

. Nowlan attended

Acadia University Acadia University is a public, predominantly Undergraduate education, undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, with some Postgraduate education, graduate programs at the master's level and one at the Doctorate, doctor ...

in his hometown, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in 1952. He then attended

Dalhousie Law School The Schulich School of Law is the law school of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Founded in 1883 as Dalhousie Law School, it is the oldest university-based common law school in Canada. It adopted its current name in October ...

, graduating in 1955.

Political career

Nowlan was first elected as a Member of Parliament in 1965 serving the riding of Annapolis Valley. In 1966, when the Conservatives opposed the Liberal government's legislation to end a national railway strike, Nowlan broke with the party to vote in favour of the legislation. Nowlan was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1976 Progressive Conservative leadership convention, running as a

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 ...

candidate. In November 1990, Nowlan resigned from the

Tory A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...

caucus A caucus is a group or meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political cultures. The term originated in the United States, where it can refer to ...

, citing his opposition to the Mulroney government's failed

Meech Lake Accord The Meech Lake Accord () was a series of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister of Canada, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and all 10 Canadian provincial Premier (Canada), premiers. It was intended to ...

and several other issues. Nowlan sat as an "Independent Progressive Conservative" until the 1993 federal election. Nowlan ran as an independent in the 1993 election, finishing in third place behind the Liberal and Progressive Conservative candidates and receiving 19.40% of the vote.

Death

Nowlan died on 25 April 2020, aged 88.

Personal life

Pat was married to Cynthia Nowlan, an entrepreneur who started a store in Ottawa called "The Pepper Pot". The couple had four children and six grandchildren.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nowlan, Pat 1931 births 2020 deaths Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Nova Scotia Independent MPs in the Canadian House of Commons Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs Progressive Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada Canadian people of Irish descent