William George Beech (June 4, 1898 – May 28, 1971) was a mid-20th century

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician who represented York Township at all three levels of government.

Background

Beech was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and moved to Canada with his parents when he was very young. Beech served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, joining the army at 16, and was wounded at

Vimy Ridge The Battle of Vimy Ridge was part of the Battle of Arras, in the Pas-de-Calais department of France, during the First World War. The main combatants were the four divisions of the Canadian Corps in the First Army, against three divisions of ...

. He was an industrial engineer, and then in 1950 owned a travel agency in the York Township.

Politics

Beech was a member of the council for York Township and was reeve from 1948 to 1951. He defeated

Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Ontario Section) – The Farmer-Labor Party of Ontario, or more commonly known as the Ontario CCF, was a democratic socialism, democratic socialist provincial political party in Ontario that existed from 19 ...

(CCF) leader

Ted Jolliffe Edward Bigelow JolliffeSmith, p. 195 (March 2, 1909 – March 18, 1998) was a Canadian social democratic politician and lawyer from Ontario. He was the first leader of the Ontario section of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and ...

to represent

York South York South was an electoral district (or "riding") in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1904 to 1979. The riding is notable for the 1942 federal by-election in which newly elected Conservative leader Ar ...

in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for the

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (french: Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada ...

in 1951. He was defeated by the new CCF leader, Donald C. MacDonald, in the provincial election held in 1955 but was elected to a seat in the House of Commons two years later and again in 1958. Beech was defeated in his re-election attempt for the federal seat in 1962 by David Lewis of the New Democratic Party (NDP), a future leader of the federal NDP. It was notable that Beech won or lost his seats to three different leaders of the CCF/NDP. He ran again, and was defeated in the April 1963 Canadian general election. He died on May 28, 1971, in the Borough of York (as York Township was renamed in 1967), after a brief illness.

References

External links

* * 1898 births 1971 deaths Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Mayors of York, Ontario {{ProgressiveConservative-Ontario-MPP-stub