Wallace Conrad Miller (February 7, 1896 – October 4, 1959) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

politician who served in the

Legislative Assembly of Manitoba The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba () is the deliberative assembly of the Manitoba Legislature in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly at List of Manitoba genera ...

from 1936 to 1959, and was a

cabinet minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

in the government of

Douglas L. Campbell Douglas Lloyd Campbell (May 27, 1895 – April 23, 1995) was a Canadian politician in Manitoba. He served as the 13th premier of Manitoba from 1948 to 1958. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for 47 years, longer than ...

. Born in

Waterloo County Waterloo County was a county in Canada West in the United Province of Canada from 1853 until 1867, then in the Canadian province of Ontario from 1867 until 1973. It was the direct predecessor of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Situated on ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Miller was educated at schools in Ontario and Manitoba, and also in

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and

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. He worked as a real estate agent and Notary Public. He 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 1916, and served in France during

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. Twice wounded, he returned home for medical reasons in June 1918. From 1926 to 1936, Miller served as chair of the Gretna School Board. He was a director of the Manitoba Trustees Association from 1932 to 1940, and was its president in 1939–40. He was also a police magistrate from 1926 to 1928, and a Justice of the Peace from 1932 to 1936. Miller ran for the

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 ...

for the Conservative Party in the 1935 federal election, but lost to Howard Winkler of the

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by 520 votes, in the riding of Lisgar. He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1936 provincial election. A

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

, he defeated

Liberal-Progressive Liberal-Progressive was a label used by a number of candidates in Canadian elections between 1925 and 1953. In federal and Ontario politics there was no Liberal-Progressive Party, as such. The term generally referred to candidates endorsed by Lib ...

J.J. Enns by 358 votes in the constituency of

Morden and Rhineland Morden and Rhineland is a former provincial electoral division in the Canadian province of Manitoba, which was represented in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1914 to 1949. The district was created by merging the former districts of Morde ...

. In 1940, the governing Liberal-Progressives formed an all-party coalition government with the Conservatives,

CCF CCF can refer to: Computing * Confidential Consortium Framework, a free and open-source blockchain infrastructure framework developed by Microsoft * Customer Care Framework, a Microsoft product Finance * Credit conversion factor converts the ...

and

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 ...

. Miller was re-elected in the 1941 election as a coalition Conservative, defeating three other pro-coalition candidates. In early 1945, Miller resigned his seat to run for the Canadian House of Commons in the 1945 federal election. He again lost to Howard Winkler, this time by 295 votes. The Morden & Rhineland seat had not been filled by the time of the 1945 provincial election, which allowed Miller to declare his candidacy for the constituency again. Still running as a coalition Conservative, he defeated coalition Liberal-Progressive J.R. Walkof by a narrow margin. In the 1949 provincial election, he was returned without opposition for the redistributed constituency of

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

. When Douglas Campbell became Premier on December 14, 1948, he appointed Miller as his Provincial Secretary. Miller retained this position until February 14, 1950, when he resigned to become

Speaker Speaker most commonly refers to: * Speaker, a person who produces speech * Loudspeaker, a device that produces sound ** Computer speakers Speaker, Speakers, or The Speaker may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * "Speaker" (song), by David ...

of the Assembly. The Progressive Conservative Party left the coalition government in the summer of 1950, to sit on the opposition benches. Though he had been known as a strongly partisan MLA, Miller opposed this opposition and left the Progressive Conservatives to sit with the Liberal-Progressives. He resigned as Speaker on August 15, 1950, and was re-appointed to cabinet the following day as

Minister of Education An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...

. Miller was easily re-elected as a Liberal-Progressive in the 1953 election, defeating his Social Credit and Progressive Conservative opponents by a significant margin. He was again returned in the 1958 election, which saw the defeat of the Campbell government as

Dufferin Roblin Dufferin "Duff" Roblin (June 17, 1917 – May 30, 2010) was a Canadian businessman and politician. He served as the 14th premier of Manitoba from 1958 to 1967. Roblin was appointed to the Senate of Canada on the advice of Prime Minister Pierre ...

's Progressive Conservatives were able to form a

minority administration 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 ...

. Miller formally resigned his cabinet position on June 30, 1958. Miller was re-elected in the 1959 provincial election, defeating Progressive Conservative Leo Reckseidler by the reduced margin of 186 votes. He died later in the year. Notwithstanding their name, Manitoba's Liberal-Progressives were to the right of the Progressive Conservatives, and governed the province in a conservative manner. Miller was a conservative figure in the Education portfolio, and regularly opposed calls for expanded school board areas. In 1956, he rejected outright a proposal for student loans. Miller was considered to be one of the most dramatic speakers in the legislature, and regularly sparred with CCF leader

Lloyd Stinson Lloyd Cleworth Stinson (February 29, 1904 – August 28, 1976) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada, and the leader of that province's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from 1953 to 1959. Although widely regarded as a capable leader, he ...

. A school was named in his honour in the town of

Altona, Manitoba Altona is a town in southern Manitoba, Canada, about 100 km south-west of Winnipeg and 158 km north of Grand Forks, North Dakota. The population at the 2021 Census was 4,390 residents. Old Altona was founded in 1880 by Plautdietsch-spe ...

, called W.C. Miller Collegiate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Wallace 1896 births 1959 deaths Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba Members of the Executive Council of Manitoba Manitoba candidates for Member of Parliament Candidates in the 1935 Canadian federal election Candidates in the 1945 Canadian federal election Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) candidates for the Canadian House of Commons Progressive Conservative Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba