Sinclair Stevens

Sinclair McKnight Stevens, (February 11, 1927 – November 30, 2016) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman and cabinet minister.

He was born in Esquesing Township (today part of Halton Hills, Ontario), the third child of Northern Irish immigrants Robert Murray Stevens and Anna Bailey McKnight.

The family later moved near Kleinburg, Ontario.

He attended Weston Collegiate Institute and later, the University of Western Ontario, class of 1950.

He was active in the student newspaper and the model Parliament.

He entered Osgoode Hall Law School, where he met his fellow student and future wife Noreen Mary Terese Charlebois.

Noreen was one of just five women in their class.

They graduated in 1955 and married in 1958.

From his university days until he articled, he was a part-time reporter for the Toronto Star.

Stevens articled with Toronto law firm Fraser & Beatty.

He later formed his own firm Stevens, Hassard & Elliot.

In 1958, his first development, The Cardiff, was under way.

That was followed up with several other development projects.

In 1962, he formed York Trust and Savings Co. Former Bank of Canada Governor James Coyne became chairman in 1963.

Stevens had interests in several other small trust companies.

Unusually for the time, his branches were located in working-class areas and Loblaws stores, featuring extended service hours.

York Trust grew at four times the rate of other trust companies.

From 1963 to 1967 Stevens, was embroiled in an attempt to form the first new Canadian chartered bank in 50 years, Westbank.

That caused resentment in several quarters.

Westerners saw it as yet another eastern-controlled firm, Conservatives were put off by the association with Coyne, and the feathers of the establishment banks were ruffled.

The affair led to a falling-out with Coyne and later with businessman Marc Bienvenu.

John Diefenbaker reportedly "loathed" Stevens over the issue.

By 1964 Stevens controlled 23 companies with assets of $130 million, having started in 1961 with just $215,000.

In 1968, he moved to King Township, Ontario.

He was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1972 federal election as a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament, defeating Liberal incumbent cabinet minister John Roberts in the riding of York—Simcoe.

At the time, he had only three years parliamentary experience, but five of the other candidates had also entered parliament in 1972.

He finished seventh (of eleven candidates) on the first ballot and withdrew in favour of the eventual winner Joe Clark.

That was seen as a surprising move, since Stevens was considered right-wing, and Clark was a moderate on the party's left wing.

Mulroney would "think about Steven's dramatic walk for years to come, never pretending to understand it."

Stevens had been the top official campaign spender (at $294,107), but Mulroney, who did not provide figures, is widely thought to have exceeded that amount.

He was re-elected in 1974.

Stevens ran as a candidate in the 1976 Progressive Conservative leadership convention.

When his riding was abolished in 1979, Stevens was nominated in the new riding of York—Peel.

Stevens served as President of the Treasury Board in the short-lived (1979–1980) Clark government.

He won again, and was re-elected in 1980, and 1984.

Stevens turned against Clark, and was an early supporter of Mulroney's leadership bid which culminated in victory at the 1983 Progressive Conservative leadership convention.

After the 1984 election, which resulted in a Tory landslide, Stevens became Minister of Regional Industrial Expansion.

As a cabinet minister, Stevens had placed his business holdings into a blind trust.

He was forced to resign from Cabinet in 1986 after allegations of conflict of interest.

In December 1987, a special commission of inquiry, headed by Justice William Dickens Parker, ruled Stevens had violated conflict-of-interest allegations on fourteen counts.