Willis Merwyn Johnson (May 9, 1923 – July 14, 2019), better known as Merv Johnson, was a Canadian farmer and politician in
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North ...
.
Johnson was the
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 ...
Member for Parliament for
Kindersley
Kindersley is a town surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Kindersley No. 290 in west-central Saskatchewan, Canada. It is located along Highway 7, a primary highway linking Calgary, Alberta and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. At a population of 4,59 ...
, Saskatchewan. He first won his seat in the
House of Commons of Canada in the
1953 federal election and was re-elected in
1957
1957 (Roman numerals, MCMLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday, common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, t ...
before being defeated in the
1958 general election in the
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 electio ...
landslide. He attempted to re-enter the House of Commons in several subsequent elections as a
New Democrat
New Democrats, also known as centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats, or moderate Democrats, are a centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party in the United States. As the Third Way faction of the party, they are seen as cultural ...
but was unsuccessful.
In 1977, Johnson was appointed to serve as Saskatchewan's
agent-general in
London, England
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
. He also served for several years as president of the
Saskatchewan CCF-NDP and was president of the federal
New Democratic Party of Canada
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:
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from 1963 to 1965. He died in Victoria, British Columbia in July 2019 at the age of 96.
Willis Merwyn (Merv) Johnson obituary
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References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Merv
1923 births
2019 deaths
20th-century Canadian politicians
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MPs
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Saskatchewan
Presidents of the New Democratic Party of Canada