|
Clarence Decatur "C. D." Howe, (15 January 1886 – 31 December 1960) was a powerful Canadian Cabinet minister, representing the Liberal Party. Howe served in the governments of Prime Ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent continuously from 1935 to 1957. He is credited with transforming the Canadian economy from agriculture-based to industrial. During the Second World War, his involvement in the war effort was so extensive that he was nicknamed the "Minister of Everything."〔("The War Economy and Controls: C.D. Howe." ) ''Canadian War Museum. Retrieved: 6 August 2013.〕 Born in Massachusetts, Howe moved to Nova Scotia as a young adult to take up a professorship at Dalhousie University. After working for the Canadian government as an engineer, he began his own firm, and became a wealthy man. In 1935, he was recruited as a Liberal candidate for the Canadian House of Commons by then Opposition leader Mackenzie King. The Liberals won the election in a landslide, and Howe won his seat. Mackenzie King appointed him to the Cabinet. There, he took major parts in many new enterprises, including the founding of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Trans-Canada Air Lines (today Air Canada). When World War II began in 1939, Howe played a crucial role in Canada's war effort, and recruited many corporate executives to serve in wartime enterprises. Howe's impatience with the necessity for parliamentary debate of his proposals won him few friends, and he was often accused of dictatorial conduct by the Opposition. As the Liberal government entered its third decade, it and Howe came to be seen as arrogant. The Government's attempt to impose closure in the 1956 Pipeline Debate led to major controversy in the House of Commons. In the 1957 election, Howe's actions and policies were made an issue by Opposition leader John Diefenbaker. Howe faced a serious challenge in his riding, but was expected to make speeches elsewhere as a major Liberal leader. Howe lost his seat in the election, and Diefenbaker became Prime Minister, ending almost 22 years of Liberal rule. Howe returned to the private sector, accepting a number of corporate directorships. The former minister died suddenly of a heart attack in December 1960. == Early years and academic career == Howe was born and raised in Waltham, Massachusetts, in the United States. The Howes were well-regarded in the local community, and William Howe, Clarence's father, was involved in local politics. When not doing political work, William Howe was a carpenter and house builder. Clarence's mother, the former Mary Emma Hastings, was a teacher and the daughter of a prosperous farmer on whose farm Clarence spent his childhood summers. Clarence did well in school, and upon his graduation from Waltham High School in 1903, he took the entrance examinations for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He passed, and after taking basic courses at the school, did advanced work in engineering. During the summers, he worked for J.B. Worcester & Co., a firm which had constructed much of the Boston subway system. While at school, he became a favourite pupil of Professor George Swain; after Howe graduated in 1907, Swain offered Howe a job as his teaching assistant. Howe accepted, although the young engineer felt that he should leave the Boston area to begin his career. Soon afterwards, Howe was offered an opportunity to become an engineering professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A popular story about Howe was that Swain had Howe and fellow engineer James Barker toss a coin to see who would get the job. Barker denied the tale later in life, stating he had no interest in the position and no one who knew Howe would be foolish enough to gamble with him, as Howe had shown himself to be uncommonly lucky. In any event, Howe had no better prospects in sight; unemployment among his classmates was high due to the Panic of 1907. At the time, Dalhousie was a small university, with only 400 students, and members of the teaching staff had a heavy workload. Howe, at age 23, was little older than some of his students. He had little experience in the field, and on trips outside Halifax, he and his students would solve problems together. Howe's view was that any problem could be solved through common sense and hard work. Howe took his students to the countryside, where they camped, surveying and planning imaginary railroads. His student Denis Stairs, who would go on to lead the Montreal Engineering Company, said of Howe that by the time the camp ended, his students had great respect for him. Student C. J. Mackenzie, who Howe would later appoint to the National Research Council presidency, stated that Howe was not a brilliant lecturer, but that his presentations were always extremely clear. Howe later said of university education, "The worker at college continues to work, and becomes a successful engineer. The shirker continues to shirk, and gets nowhere." In addition to his own work, Howe found time for an active social life in Halifax, and considered marrying the sister of one of his students, but she had another husband in mind. After Howe's first year in Halifax, engineering instruction of upperclassmen was taken away from Dalhousie and other universities in the province, and placed in a separate technical institute in which Howe had no role. Howe later stated that he liked Dalhousie, and had this change not occurred, he might have remained there as a professor. In 1913, however, a former colleague at Dalhousie, Robert Magill, who had recently been appointed chairman of the Board of Grain Commissioners, offered Howe the post of chief engineer, with responsibility for supervising the construction of grain elevators. Howe stated, "I've never seen one of those things in my life, but I'll take the job." The same year, he applied to become a British subject, as Canadians then were. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「C. D. Howe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|