John Polworth Lawrie (August 25, 1875 in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

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– October 17, 1952) was a politician in

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

, 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 gen ...

from 1936 to 1949. Originally elected as a

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

, he sat as a Progressive Conservative after the party changed its name. Lawrie was educated in Edinburgh, and came to Canada in 1893. He worked as an implement dealer and insurance broker, also served as a police magistrate and commissioner. In 1907, he married May Clegg. He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1936 provincial election, defeating incumbent

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 ...

candidate

John Muirhead John Muirhead (July 11, 1877 – 1954) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1922 to 1936. Muirhead was born in Clinton, Ontario and was educated at public schools. He worked as a f ...

by 82 votes in the constituency of

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. The Conservatives were the primary opposition party in Manitoba during this period, and Lawrie sat with his party on the opposition benches. In 1940, the Liberal-Progressives and Conservatives joined together in a wartime coalition government. This arrangement did not prevent the parties from fielding candidates against one another in the 1941 election, however; Lawrie again faced John Muirhead, and won by only 44 votes. He served as a government backbencher for the remainder of his tenure in the legislature. In the 1945 election, he defeated a candidate of the

Cooperative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; french: Fédération du Commonwealth Coopératif, FCC); from 1955 the Social Democratic Party of Canada (''french: Parti social démocratique du Canada''), was a federal democratic socialistThe follo ...

. Lawrie did not run for re-election in 1949, and died in Carberry three years later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrie, John 1875 births 1949 deaths Politicians from Edinburgh Scottish emigrants to Canada Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba MLAs