John N. Decore (born Ivan Dikur; April 9, 1909 – November 11, 1994) was a barrister, lawyer, teacher, and politician from

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Decore was born Ivan Dikur on a farm west of Andrew, Alberta in a district called Sniatyn to Ukrainian immigrant parents Nykola and Hafia (nee Kostiuk). Nykola arrived in Canada in 1898 at the age of ten; Nykola was Hafia's second husband. Hafia died when John was only four years old he did not along with his stepmother. He completed grade eleven before the

Great Depression in Canada The worldwide Great Depression of the early 1930s was a social and economic shock that left millions of Canadians unemployed, hungry and often homeless. Few countries were affected as severely as Canada during what became known as the "Dirty Thirt ...

forced his father to stop supporting him financially. After attending the first eight grades at the local

one-room school One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...

in Sniatyn, moved to

Vegreville Vegreville ( uk, Веґревіль) is a town in central Alberta, Canada. It is on Highway 16A approximately east of Edmonton, Alberta's capital city. It was incorporated as a town in 1906, and that year also saw the founding of the ''Vegre ...

and boarded with a woman from his father home village, and later went to Eastwood School and

Victoria School Victoria School (VS) is a government autonomous boys' secondary school in Siglap, Singapore. Established in 1876, it is Singapore's second oldest state secondary school. It offers a six-year Integrated Programme, which allows students to skip t ...

in Edmonton for grades 9 to 11, where he stayed in the ''bursa'' ( dormitory) for Ukrainian students called the Hrushevsky Institute. Students at the Institute took classes in Ukrainian language and culture in the evenings in addition to his studies in the regular English-language Albertan curriculum. After completing grade eleven he went to the Edmonton Normal School in 1929-30 and then taught in a series of rural school in the region near Andrew. He married Mysoslava Kupchenko in 1935 and also began attending the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a Public university, public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexande ...

in a combined program that awarded him a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in 1937 and an

L.L.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

in 1938. He articled in Vegreville and was called to the bar in 1939. At university he played for the Golden Bears basketball team and was the national president of the

Ukrainian Youth Association The Ukrainian Youth Association ( uk, Спілка української молоді, transliterated as , known by the acronym , , pronounced "", and commonly rendered as CYM) is a youth organization in Ukraine, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, ...

. The couple lived in Vegreville where John practiced law during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

as John was rejected by the Canadian Armed Forces due to arthritis. John help to lead work bees and the fundraising efforts during for a public pool so the children of men serving overseas would have recreational activity, and was the president of the Kinsmen Club, the chamber of commerce, and the council of the local

Ukrainian Orthodox Church The history of Christianity in Ukraine dates back to the earliest centuries of the history of Christianity, to the Apostolic Age, with mission trips along the Black Sea and a legend of Saint Andrew even ascending the hills of Kyiv. The first Chr ...

, and school board trustee where he promoted the hiring of Ukrainian-Canadian teachers. He anglicized his name to John by 1940s.John N. Decore The Globe and Mail oronto, Ont14 Nov 1994: C.4. He first ran for the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

as a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

candidate in the 1949 federal election. He defeated

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

incumbent Anthony Hlynka in the riding of

. He was re-elected in the 1953 election, once again defeating Hlynka. He was appointed an advisor to

Lester B. Pearson Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972) was a Canadian scholar, statesman, diplomat, and politician who served as the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968. Born in Newtonbrook, Ontario (now part of ...

during Pearson's time as Ambassador of Canada to the United Nations and gave several speeches in the United States including representing Canada at U.N. Headquarters (then at

Lake Success, New York Lake Success is a village in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York. The population was 2,897 at the 2010 census. The Incorporated Village of Lake Success was the temporary home of the Uni ...

) and speaking on Ukrainian issues at Carnegie Hall with U.S. Senator Lehman. In Parliament he was a vocal anti-communist and an activist for Ukrainian rights in both Canada and the Soviet Union. At his urging Canadian immigration documents began to recognize "Ukrainian" as nationality, and not merely the name of regional population within the Soviet Union. He also advocated for allowing the members of the controversial 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) to immigrate to Canada. He considered his "crowning achievement" in politics to be arranging for Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent to open the Ukrainian Pioneer Home monument at Elk Island National Park in 1951. He also arranged for a concert of the

Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus The Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus ( uk, Українська Капеля Бандуристів Північної Америки ім. Т. Г. Шевченка; full name: ''The Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America'') is a s ...

in the Railway Committee Room of Parliament and the creation of a Ukrainian-language service at Voice of Canada. He retired from Parliament in 1957. Decore attempted to return to federal politics in the 1962 election, this time in the

Edmonton East Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...

electoral district, but he lost to Progressive Conservative (PC) incumbent William Skoreyko. He ran once more in the 1963 federal election in Edmonton—Strathcona, losing to PC incumbent

Terry Nugent Terence James Nugent (December 9, 1920 – April 13, 2006) was a barrister, lawyer and World War II era soldier. He was also a Canadian federal politician from 1958 to 1968 and an alderman in the city of Edmonton, Alberta from 1968 to 1971. ...

. Was was made a Q.C. in 1964 and in 1965 was appointed Chief Justice of the District Court of Northern Alberta and supervised its merger with the southern district court. He was also involved in the creation of the Court of Queen's Bench for Alberta in 1979. He retired as chief justice in that year and was awarded an honourary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1980. Decore's son

Laurence Laurence is an English and French given name (usually female in French and usually male in English). The English masculine name is a variant of Lawrence and it originates from a French form of the Latin ''Laurentius'', a name meaning "man from ...

was mayor of Edmonton and leader of the Opposition in the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. The Legislative Assembly currently has 87 members, elected first past the post from sin ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Decore, John 1909 births 1994 deaths Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta Liberal Party of Canada MPs Canadian people of Ukrainian descent 20th-century Canadian judges 20th-century Eastern Orthodox Christians Members of Ukrainian Orthodox church bodies University of Alberta Faculty of Law alumni People from Lamont County Canadian schoolteachers Canadian anti-communists Multiculturalism activists in Canada Eastern Orthodox Christians from Canada