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Paul Theodore Hellyer (August 6, 1923 – August 8, 2021) was a Canadian engineer, politician, writer, and commentator. He was the longest serving member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada at the time of his death.
After graduation, Hellyer was employed at Fleet Aircraft in Fort Erie, Ontario, which was then making training craft for the Royal Canadian Air Force as part of Canada's war effort in World War II. He attempted to become an RCAF pilot himself, but was told no more pilots were necessary, after which he joined the Royal Canadian Artillery and served in Canada as a gunner for the duration of the war.
Hellyer earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in 1949.
Hellyer returned to parliament in a 1958 by-election in the neighbouring riding of Trinity, and became an opposition critic of John Diefenbaker Progressive Conservative government.
Hellyer contested the 1968 Liberal leadership election, placing second on the first ballot, but slipped to third on the second and third ballots, and withdrew to support Robert Winters on the fourth ballot, in which Pierre Trudeau won the leadership. He served as Trudeau's Transport Minister.
The report also called for the suspension of the "wholesale destruction of older housing" and for "greater selectivity ... in the demolition of existing houses". Grand urban renewal projects would come to an end as a result of his Task Force. Hellyer resigned from the cabinet in 1969 after a dispute with Trudeau over the implementation of the housing program.
From 1971, Hellyer sat in Parliament as an independent, and after failing to form a new political party called Action Canada, he was invited by PC leader Robert Stanfield to join the PC caucus. He returned to prominence as an opposition critic and was re-elected in the 1972 election as a Progressive Conservative but lost his seat in the 1974 election.
Despite this loss, Hellyer contested the PC leadership election of 1976. His views were too right wing for most delegates, and he alienated many PCs with a speech attacking Red Tories as not being "true conservatives". He finished a distant sixth of eight contestants on the second ballot; Joe Clark won the leadership.
Hellyer rejoined the Liberal Party in 1982 but remained mostly silent in politics. He contested the Liberal nomination in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's in 1988, CBC News Archives, "Paul Hellyer attempts political comeback in 1988" losing to Aideen Nicholson who had defeated Hellyer 14 years previously when a PC MP in the adjacent riding of Trinity.
Under Prime Minister Trudeau, Hellyer served as Canada's only Senior Minister from April 1968 until resigning from the post in 1969.
His party remained a little-noticed minor party, and Hellyer lost bids for a seat in the House of Commons of Canada in the 1997 and 2000 elections.
Following the 2000 election, and a resurgence for the New Democratic Party, Hellyer approached NDP leadership to discuss the possibility of merging the two parties into 'One Big Party'. This process was furthered by the passage of a unanimous motion at the CAP's convention in 2003.
In early 2004, after several extensions of the merger deadline, the NDP rejected Hellyer's merger proposal which would have required the NDP to change its name. Hellyer resigned as CAP leader, but remained a member of the party. Rumours that he might run for the NDP in the 2004 election proved to be unfounded.
In early September 2005, Hellyer made headlines by publicly announcing that he believed in the existence of UFOs. On September 25, 2005, he was a guest speaker at an exopolitics conference in Toronto, where he told the audience that he had seen a UFO one night with his late wife and some friends. The Ottawa Citizen reported in 2007 that Hellyer was demanding world governments disclose alien technology that could be used to solve the problem of climate change. In an interview with RT (formerly Russia Today) in 2014, Hellyer said that at least four species of aliens had been visiting Earth for thousands of years, with most of them coming from other star systems, although there are some living on Venus, Mars and "Saturn's moon".
Hellyer died in Toronto on August 8, 2021 of complications from a fall, two days after his 98th birthday.
Note: Canadian Alliance vote is compared to the Reform vote in 1997 election.
Early political career
First elected as a Liberal in 1949 federal election in the riding of Davenport, he was the youngest person ever elected to that point in the House of Commons of Canada. He served a brief stint as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of National Defence. He was then named Associate Minister of National Defence in the cabinet of Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent. This post was short-lived, though, as Hellyer lost his seat when the St. Laurent government lost the 1957 election two months later.
Cabinet minister and Liberal leadership candidate
When the Liberals returned to power in the 1963 election, Hellyer became Minister of National Defence in the Canadian cabinet of Lester B. Pearson. This was the most significant period in Hellyer's political career. As Minister of Defence, he oversaw the drastic and controversial integration and unification of the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and the Royal Canadian Air Force into a single organization, the
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Politics 1969–1988
In 1969, Hellyer issued a major report on housing and urban renewal in which he advocated incremental reforms rather than new government programs. He called for greater flexibility in Canada's mortgage loan system and encouraged corporate pension funds to invest more money in housing programs. Winnipeg Free Press, January 25, 1969, p. 11. His approach did not meet with universal acceptance. Some provincial and municipal governments were openly skeptical, Winnipeg Free Press, January 30, 1969, p. 6. It was noted that Toronto councillor David Rotenberg was a supporter of Hellyer's proposals. and Heward Grafftey, a left-leaning Progressive Conservative (PC) with an interest in housing, called for a more radical approach.
Canadian Action Party
In 1997, Hellyer formed the Canadian Action Party (CAP) to provide voters with an economic nationalist option following the collapse of the National Party of Canada. Hellyer believed that both the Progressive Conservative and Liberal parties were embracing globalization, and that the New Democratic Party was no longer able to provide a credible alternative. CAP also embraced Hellyer's proposals for monetary reform: that the government should become more involved in the direction of the economy by gradually reducing the creation of private money and increasing the creation of public money from the current ratio of 5% public / 95% private back to 50% public and 50% private.
Extraterrestrial intelligence claims
On June 3, 1967, Hellyer inaugurated an unidentified flying object landing pad in St. Paul, Alberta. The pad was built as the town's Canadian Centennial celebration project and as a symbol of keeping space free from human warfare.
Personal life and death
Hellyer was one of the earliest investors in the Toronto Sun in 1971. He served as a syndicated columnist for the newspaper between 1974 and 1984. He resided in Toronto and had three children and five grandchildren.
Books
Hellyer has written several books on Canada and globalization, including , in which he promoted the merger of the CAP, NDP, and various left-wing activists to save Canada from the effects of globalization, as well as possible annexation by the United States.
Electoral record
Liberal Paul Hellyer 5,175
Progressive Conservative Joe Lesniak 4,404
Co-operative Commonwealth John Elchuk 1,724
Liberal Paul Hellyer 9,615
Progressive Conservative Stanley Frolick 6,124
New Democratic Party Thomas Paton 3,740
Independent Peter D'Agostino 295
Liberal Paul Hellyer 10,595
Progressive Conservative John Wasylenko 5,171
New Democratic Party Thomas Paton 3,512
Liberal Paul Hellyer 9,897
Progressive Conservative John Brazill 4,375
New Democratic Party Enzo Ragno 2,773 Liberal Paul Hellyer 13,126
Progressive Conservative Ed Robertson 5,360
New Democratic Party Jim De Candole 4,177 Progressive Conservative Paul Hellyer 8,518
Liberal Aideen Nicholson 8,334
New Democratic Party Edward Boucher 3,725
Unknown Norman Freed 330
Unknown Rae Greig 134 Liberal Aideen Nicholson 10,683
Progressive Conservative Paul Hellyer 6,537
New Democratic Party Jonathan Cohen 2,637
Independent Martin K. Weiche 64
Archives
There is a Paul Hellyer fonds at Library and Archives Canada.
See also
External links
Categories: 1923 Births, 2021 Deaths, Ministers Of National Defence Of Canada, Ministers Of Transport Of Canada, Royal Canadian Air Force Personnel Of World War Ii, Canadian Non-fiction Writers, Canadian Columnists, Canadian Nationalists, Liberal Party Of Canada Mps, Members Of The House Of Commons Of Canada From Ontario, Members Of The King's Privy Council For Canada, Members Of The United Church Of Canada, Progressive Conservative Party Of Canada Mps, Progressive Conservative Party Of Canada Leadership Candidates, Canadian Army Personnel Of World War Ii, Canadian Military Personnel From Ontario, People From Norfolk County, Ontario, Royal Regiment Of Canadian Artillery Personnel, University Of Toronto Alumni, Ufologists, 20th-century Members Of The House Of Commons Of Canada
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