Roy McMurtry
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Roland Roy McMurtry (born May 31, 1932) is a judge and former politician in Ontario, Canada.
McMurtry was born in Toronto. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto (Trinity College) in 1954, and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1958. While attending university, he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity and became a close friend of future Premier of Ontario William Davis, his football teammate. He was a trial lawyer for seventeen years before entering politics. In the 1960s, he worked with Dalton Camp and Norman Atkins to remove John Diefenbaker as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
McMurtry suffered a back injury during the 1971 Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership convention, and so exempted himself from choosing between Davis and rival candidate Allan Lawrence (whose campaign was managed by Atkins). Davis defeated Lawrence by 44 votes on the final ballot. A few weeks later, McMurtry organized a meeting which brought together the Davis and Lawrence leadership teams. The resulting alliance, known as the Big Blue Machine, dominated the Progressive Conservative Party into the 1980s.
Allan Lawrence resigned his St. George constituency in late 1972 to move to federal politics, and McMurtry was recruited by Davis as the Progressive Conservative candidate for a January 1973 by-election. He was unexpectedly defeated by Liberal Party candidate Margaret Campbell, a well-known municipal politician. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario two years later, in the 1975 provincial election, defeating Liberal candidate Frank Judge in Eglinton.
Davis won a minority government in the 1975 election, and McMurtry was immediately appointed to cabinet as Attorney-General. He held this position until 1985, and also served as Solicitor-General from 1978 to 1982.
McMurtry was a Red Tory, and was one of Davis's closest advisers in government. As Attorney-General, he played a major role in brokering the deal that achieved patriation of the Canadian Constitution and the creation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A late night "kitchen accord" between McMurtry, Jean Chrétien and Roy Romanow in November 1981 played a significant role in ending the federal-provincial constitutional deadlock, and allowed the Constitution come into law the following year.
McMurtry's lowest point was his role in the prosecution of nurse Susan Nelles, who was charged with the murder of a number of infants at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Nelles was ultimately exonerated, and McMurtry was criticized for his ministry's role in her wrongful prosecution.
When Davis resigned as Progressive Conservative leader and premier in 1985, McMurtry sought the party's leadership at the party's January 1985 leadership convention. He started as the underdog in the campaign, but impressed many delegated through his performance in candidates' debates and polling data showing him as the preferred choice of Ontario voters. During the contest, McMurtry was sometimes criticized for remaining too long in one portfolio. While his opponents all had diverse ministerial experience, McMurtry's expertise was focused more narrowly on matters of legal jurisprudence. His supporters included Robert Elgie, Frank Drea, Reuben Baetz and Bob MacQuarrie.
McMurtry won a total of 300 votes on the first ballot, considerably more than he had been expected to win. It was not sufficient, however, to place better than fourth in a field of four, after Frank Miller, Dennis Timbrell and Larry Grossman. He was eliminated from the contest and gave his support to Grossman, a fellow Red Tory.
McMurtry's support was enough to move Grossman into second place on the second ballot, ahead of the more centrist Timbrell. Timbrell's delegates were divided on the last ballot, which allowed the conservative Miller to win the convention. Miller gave McMurtry the option of remaining as Attorney-General in the new government, but he declined and announced his retirement from politics.
On February 4, Canadian External Affairs Minister Joe Clark announced that McMurtry had been appointed to succeed Donald Jamieson as Canada's High Commissioner to Great Britain. He served in this capacity until 1988. Upon his return to Canada, he resumed his law practice and became chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Football League.
He was appointed Associate Chief Justice of the Superior Court (Trial Division) in Ontario in 1991, and became Chief Justice of that court in 1994. He became Chief Justice of Ontario in 1996, heading the entire court system in the province, and leading the Ontario Court of Appeal. That court attained notoriety in 2003 when it ruled that provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteeing equality under the law require the Province of Ontario to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples.
Roy McMurtry is married to Ria Jean Macrae with whom he has six children. His eldest son, Jim McMurtry ran as the Liberal candidate in British Columbia for the 2006 federal election, placing second to Conservative candidate Russ Hiebert. He is a skilled landscape painter, and has donated his artwork to charity auctions.
External links
- [McMurtry Art Exhibit] Online exhibition of Roy McMurtry's paintings.
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