Alexander Turk (March 5, 1906 – January 1, 1988) was a professional wrestling promoter and politician in

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

, Canada. He served in the

Legislative Assembly of Manitoba The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba (french: Assemblée législative du Manitoba) is the deliberative assembly of the Manitoba Legislature in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly at provincial gener ...

as a

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: it was an alliance between two parties. In Manitoba, a party existe ...

from 1953 to 1958. Born in

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory) is a town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, with a population of 18,755 at the United Kingdom census, 2011, 2011 Census. It is a major passenger and freight Roll-on/ro ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, the son of Nathaniel Turk and Mary O'Lynn, Turk came to Canada with his family in 1910 and was educated at Lord Selkirk School. In 1931, he married Annie Owens. He was a wrestling promoter and president of the Giants Baseball Club and was known in politics as a charismatic showman. Some credit him with introducing modern

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

to Manitoba in 1946 with his company, the NWA-affiliated Alex Turk Promotions. In his later years, he would promote

Verne Gagne Laverne Clarence Gagne (February 26, 1926 – April 27, 2015) was an American amateur and professional wrestler, football player, wrestling trainer, and wrestling promoter. He was the owner and promoter of the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling ...

, Pat O'Connor, Stu Hart,

Bruno Sammartino Bruno Leopoldo Francesco Sammartino (October 6, 1935 – April 18, 2018) was an Italian-born American professional wrestler, best known for his work with the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, now WWE). There, he held the WWWF World Heavywei ...

, Haystacks Calhoun, Lou Thesz and others in the region. In 1961 and 1962, he promoted wrestling events for the

American Wrestling Association The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 until 1991. It was owned and founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo. The territory was originally part o ...

. In 1963, he left the AWA and ran shows in competition with the AWA for several years. He was eventually pushed out of business by competition from the

. Turk's election to the Manitoba legislature was somewhat unexpected. In the 1953 election, he ran as a candidate of the Liberal-Progressive Party in Winnipeg North, a constituency dominated by the

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and the

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

Labour Progressive Party. He finished seventh out of eleven candidates on the multi-member constituency's first count, behind two other Liberal-Progressive candidates. He did well on

transfers Transfer may refer to: Arts and media * ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović * ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film * ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies ...

, however, and defeated fellow Liberal-Progressive J.M. Kozoriz for the final position. In the legislature, he served as a backbench supporter of Douglas Campbell's government. Turk was on the left wing of the Liberal-Progressive Party. In 1954, he was the only member of the government caucus to support a CCF bill calling for comprehensive health insurance. The following year, he was the only Liberal-Progressive MLA to endorse a bill calling for progressive prison reforms. Winnipeg's multi-member constituencies were eliminated in the 1958 election, and Turk lost to Steve Peters of the CCF by 856 votes in the newly created riding of Elmwood. He ran again in the 1959 election but finished third. After leaving provincial politics, Turk was elected to the Winnipeg City Council. Though a member of the conservative Civic Election Committee, he again showed himself to be a progressive representative on issues relating to workers, pensioners, and people with disabilities, and he often voted with the CCF group. In 1964, he lost his seat on council to another CEC candidate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turk, Alexander 1906 births 1988 deaths Manitoba Liberal Party MLAs Winnipeg city councillors People from Larne