Peter Michael Pitfield (June 18, 1937 – October 19, 2017) was a Canadian Senator and senior

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. Pitfield was the youngest son of the Canadian financier Ward C. Pitfield and Grace MacDougall Pitfield, daughter of Canadian ice hockey player Hartland MacDougall. His brother, Ward C. Pitfield Jr., was Chairman of the family Investment Banking firm, Pitfield, MacKay, Ross, which later merged with

Dominion Securities RBC Dominion Securities was the brand used by Royal Bank of Canada for full service brokerage services, primarily in Canada, and formed part of RBC's Wealth Management and Capital Markets divisions. Today, RBC Dominion Securities is known as RBC Ca ...

, now the investment arm of the

Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; french: Banque royale du Canada) is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 17 million clients and has more than 89,000& ...

. Another brother was stockbroker Robert Hartland Pitfield (d. 2004), father of Robert H. Pitfield Jr (married to former Toronto city councillor

Jane Pitfield Jane Pitfield, (born ) is a former Toronto city councillor, representing one of the two Don Valley West wards. She ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Toronto in 2006. She is currently the warden of Pontiac Regional County Municipality, Quebec. Ba ...

) His nephew, Ward Elcock is the former director of the

Canadian Security Intelligence Service The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS, ; french: Service canadien du renseignement de sécurité, ''SCRS'') is Canada's primary national intelligence agency. It is responsible for collecting, analysing, reporting and disseminating i ...

and former Deputy Minister at the

Department of National Defence (Canada) The Department of National Defence (DND; french: Ministère de la Défense nationale) is the department of the Government of Canada which supports the Canadian Armed Forces in its role of defending Canadian national interests domestically and i ...

Biography

Born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

, Pitfield graduated from St. Lawrence University in

Canton, New York Canton is an incorporated Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in St. Lawrence County, New York, St. Lawrence County, New York (state), New York. The population was 11,638 at the time of the 2020 census. The town contains two Administr ...

, at the age of 16. His SLU degree, in science, was followed by a degree in

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...

from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

. He went to

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

to join the civil service in 1959 where he worked as an administrative assistant to

Justice Minister A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

E. Davie Fulton. Pitfield subsequently obtained a postgraduate degree in public law, and held various positions in the civil service. In 1966, he became assistant secretary to the Privy council and in 1969 secretary of the Division of planification. He became Clerk of the Privy Council of Canada and Secretary to the

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

under

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Pierre Trudeau Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau ( , ; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), also referred to by his initials PET, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and ...

from 1975 to 1979, and again from 1980 to 1982.Pierre Trudeau ally Michael Pitfield was Canada’s top bureaucrat
Globe and Mail obituary by John Gray, October 20, 2017 Because of his perceived close association with Trudeau and the Liberals, he was replaced during the ministry of

Joe Clark Charles Joseph Clark (born June 5, 1939) is a Canadian statesman, businessman, writer, and politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Canada from 1979 to 1980. Despite his relative inexperience, Clark rose quickly in federal polit ...

, but returned following the 1980 election that returned Trudeau to power. The diplomat John G. H. Halstead described Pitfield as an "evil influence" on the Trudeau government, describing him as a schemer who was always seeking to promote his own interests at the expense of others by preventing other officials from having access to Trudeau. Halstead accused Pitfield as having thrown Canadian foreign policy into chaos by creating a gratuitously convoluted bureaucratic structure that caused much bureaucratic in-fighting as a way to enhance his power. As head of the public service, Pitfield played a senior role in the government's successful efforts to patriate the

Canadian Constitution The Constitution of Canada (french: Constitution du Canada) is the supreme law in Canada. It outlines Canada's system of government and the civil and human rights of those who are citizens of Canada and non-citizens in Canada. Its contents a ...

. In recognition of his service, he was appointed to the Canadian Senate as an independent at Trudeau's recommendation on December 22, 1982. The appointment was controversial and seen as emblematic of the growing financial, partisan and cultural issues surrounding the Ottawa civil service. Pitfield served from the mid-1980s until 2002 as vice chairman of Power Corporation, and then was Director Emeritus of the company. Pitfield's two decades of service to the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...

Heart Institute Foundation were recognized by the establishment of the Michael Pitfield Chair in Cardiac Surgery at the Institute. In later years, he developed

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

and worked to raise awareness of the condition. Pitfield resigned from the Senate on June 1, 2010. He fathered three children (Caroline, Thomas and Kate) before his death on October 18, 2017, and was predeceased by his wife Nancy in 1999. He lived in Westmount, Quebec, for many years.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pitfield, Michael 1937 births 2017 deaths Canadian Anglicans Lawyers from Montreal Canadian senators from Ontario Clerks of the Privy Council (Canada) Independent Canadian senators Power Corporation of Canada McGill University Faculty of Law alumni Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada Neurological disease deaths in Quebec Anglophone Quebec people Politicians from Montreal St. Lawrence University alumni Officers of the Order of Canada 21st-century Canadian politicians Canadian Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order Deaths from Parkinson's disease

Biography

Archives

See also

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External links