Paul Wyatt Dick, (October 27, 1940 – May 2, 2018) was a lawyer,

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 and broker. He was born in

Kapuskasing, Ontario Kapuskasing is a town on the Kapuskasing River in the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Hearst. The town was known as MacPherson until 1917, when the name was changed so as not to conflict with another railw ...

, the son of Wyatt Dick and Constance Grace Harrison, and educated in

Arnprior Arnprior is a town in Renfrew County, in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario, Canada. It is located west of Downtown Ottawa, at the confluence of the Madawaska River and the Ottawa River in the Ottawa Valley. Arnprior has experienced sig ...

, Port Hope, at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...

and the University of

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

. Dick was called to the Ontario bar in 1969. He served as assistant

crown attorney Crown attorneys or crown counsel (or, in Alberta and New Brunswick, crown prosecutors) are the prosecutors in the legal system of Canada. Crown attorneys represent the Crown and act as prosecutor in proceedings under the Criminal Code and vario ...

for

Carleton County Carleton County (2016 population 26,220) is located in west-central New Brunswick, Canada. The western border is Aroostook County, Maine, the northern border is Victoria County, and the southeastern border is York County from which it was fo ...

from 1969 until 1972, when he entered private practice in Ottawa. In 1981, he was named

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

. Dick was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1972 general election as the Progressive Conservative

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for Lanark—Renfrew—Carleton. In 1983, he became Deputy

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House Leader {{Politics of Canada In Canada, each political party with representation in the House of Commons has a House Leader who is a front bench Member of Parliament (MP) and an expert in parliamentary procedure. The same representation is found in the pr ...

. He was appointed a parliamentary secretary following the Tory victory in the 1984 general election under

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Brian Mulroney. In 1986, Dick was promoted to Cabinet as

Associate Minister of National Defence The associate minister of national defence () is a member of the Canadian cabinet who is responsible for various files within the defence department as assigned by the prime minister or defence minister. The position was created in 1940 during ...

. He was re-elected as an MP in the 1988 election for the redistributed riding of Lanark—Carleton, and was moved to the position of Minister of Supply and Services in 1989. When

Kim Campbell Avril Phaedra Douglas "Kim" Campbell (born March 10, 1947) is a Canadian politician, diplomat, lawyer, and writer who served as the 19th prime minister of Canada from June 25 to November 4, 1993. Campbell is the first and so far only female ...

succeeded Mulroney as prime minister in June 1993, she retained Dick as Supply and Services minister, while adding an appointment as

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. However, in the subsequent 1993 election, Dick was defeated, losing to

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Ian Murray by over 18,000 votes. At 53, and with having spent most of his adult life in politics, Dick found that his political experience counted for little in job interviews. After being turned down for executive or management level positions, Dick found entry-level work at a stock brokerage firm. Dick was successful and ultimately earned a six-figure salary. The story of Dick's life after politics is one of those profiled in the 2003 book ''The Dark Side: The Personal Price of a Political Life'' by Steve Paikin. Dick died at home of a heart attack at the age of 77. There is a Paul W. Dick

fonds In archival science, a fonds is a group of documents that share the same origin and that have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization. An example of a fonds could be the writings of a poe ...

at Library and Archives Canada.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dick, Paul 1940 births 2018 deaths Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada Lawyers in Ontario People from Kapuskasing University of Western Ontario alumni University of New Brunswick alumni Members of the 24th Canadian Ministry Members of the 25th Canadian Ministry Canadian King's Counsel