Terence James Nugent (December 9, 1920 – April 13, 2006) was a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

, lawyer and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

era soldier. He was also a Canadian federal politician from 1958 to 1968 and an

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

in the city of

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, Alberta from 1968 to 1971. Born in

Taber, Alberta Taber ( ) is a town in southern Alberta, Canada that is surrounded by the Municipal District of Taber. It is approximately east of the City of Lethbridge at the intersection of Alberta Highway 3, Highway 3 and Alberta Highway 36, Highway 36. T ...

, Nugent enlisted in the

Canadian Expeditionary Force The Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF; French: ''Corps expéditionnaire canadien'') was the expeditionary warfare, expeditionary field force of Canada during the First World War. It was formed on August 15, 1914, following United Kingdom declarat ...

in 1942. He served in

and left the army in 1946. He first ran as a Progressive Conservative for a

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

seat in the Edmonton—Strathcona district for the 1957 federal election. He was defeated by

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 ...

candidate Sydney Thompson and finished third out of fourth place behind defeated incumbent Member of Parliament Richmond Hanna. The following year Nugent ran for office again in the 1958 federal election winning with a

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslides ...

defeating both Hanna and Thompson in a rematch to win his first term in office. The same election saw Nugent's party—which had been in power for a year with a

minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...

led by

John 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 of Canada, Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 an ...

—returned with the largest

majority government A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature. Such a government can consist of one party that holds a majority on its own, or be a coalition government of multi ...

in Canadian history. Nugent was re-elected in the 1962 federal election with a significantly narrower margin then his victory in 1958 – his plurality dropping by almost 10,000 votes in the election that reduced the Diefenbaker Tories to a minority government. During the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...

Nugent stood in parliament and asked MPs to refuse to support the

American government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, execut ...

should it threaten to invade

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

saying "One of the fundamental facts we must recognize is that

is an independent, sovereign nation ... we may not like its form of government but I suggest that whether it is a small country or a large country, or whether it is a country that is friendly to us or not, it is a sovereign state and those of us who believe in the rights of sovereign states as subscribed to in the United Nations charter, must concede that big or small, friendly or unfriendly, whether we like it or not, that country has the same rights as we have." Nugent received some 300 telegrams of support from Canadians following his speech.Liane Faulder, "Life & Times: Speaking out against America's threatened invasion of Cuba was MP's finest moment", ''Edmonton Journal'', April 17, 2006 Parliament was dissolved after the minority government fell leading to the 1963 federal election. Nugent faced former MP

John Decore John N. Decore (born Ivan Dikur; April 9, 1909 – November 11, 1994) was a Canadian barrister, lawyer, teacher, and politician from Alberta. Decore was born Ivan Dikur on a farm west of Andrew, Alberta in a district called Sniatyn to Ukrai ...

defeating him by just 2000 votes to win his third and final term in office. The 1968 federal election saw Nugent defeated by Liberal candidate Hu Harries. After his defeat Nugent sought a career in Edmonton municipal politics. Nugent ran for a seat on Edmonton city council in the 1968 Edmonton municipal election, he won and served a term in office until 1971. He ran again in Ward 3 in the 1974 Edmonton municipal election but was defeated.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nugent, Terry 1920 births 2006 deaths Edmonton city councillors Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta People from Taber, Alberta Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs Canadian Army personnel of World War II 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada Canadian Army soldiers Canadian military personnel from Alberta