John Bracken

Frederick Donald Mackenzie
Succeeded by	Riding abolished
11th Premier of Manitoba
In office 8 August 1922 – 14 January 1943
Monarchs	George V Edward VIII George VI
Lieutenant Governor	James A. M. Aikins Theodore A. Burrows James D. McGregor William J. Tupper Roland F. McWilliams
Preceded by	Tobias Norris
Succeeded by	Stuart Garson
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for The Pas
In office 5 October 1922 – 14 January 1943
Preceded by	Edward Brown
Succeeded by	Beresford Richards
Personal details
Born	(1883-06-22)22 June 1883 Ellisville, Ontario, Canada
Died	18 March 1969(1969-03-18) (aged 85) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Political party	Progressive Conservative (federal) Progressive Party of Manitoba (provincial)
Spouse	Alice Wylie Bruce ​ (m. 1909)​
Children	4
Alma mater	Ontario Agricultural College (BSA) University of Illinois
Occupation	Professor Farmer Author
Cabinet	President of the Council (1922–1943) Minister of Education (1922–1923) Provincial Lands Commissioner (1922–1923) Railway Commissioner (1922–1923, 1935–1940) Minister of Agriculture (1923–1925, 1936) Provincial Treasurer (1925–1932) Minister of Public Utilities (1927–1928) Minister of Mines & Natural Resources (1928–1930) Provincial Secretary (1935–1939) Minister Manitoba Power Commission (1936–1940) Minister, Dom. Prov. Relations (1939–1940, 1941–1943)

John Bracken PC (22 June 1883 – 18 March 1969) was a Canadian agronomist and politician who was the 11th and longest-serving premier of Manitoba (1922–1943) and later the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (1942–1948).^[1]

Bracken was born in Ontario, and was a professor of

, winning majority governments in all but the 1936 election.

In 1942, he agreed to run for the leadership of the federal Conservative Party of Canada at the condition that the party be renamed the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. After being elected leader of the newly renamed party, he resigned as premier of Manitoba and led the PCs to a second-place finish during the 1945 Canadian federal election against the incumbent Liberal Party government led by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. He resigned as leader of the party in 1948 and was succeeded by George A. Drew. After being defeated while running for reelection to the House of Commons in the 1949 federal election, he retired from politics and died in 1969.

Early life

Bracken was born in

when he became president of the Manitoba Agricultural College.

Premier of Manitoba

In 1922, the United Farmers of Manitoba unexpectedly won the provincial election. The UFM's expectations had been so low going into the election that they had not even named a leader and ran candidates in only two thirds of the seats.

With their upset victory, the UFM faced the task of naming a leader who would become the province's new premier. After federal MPs

in that province.)

Bracken was a political outsider and gave the UFM the professional grounding it needed. The United Farmers generally rejected the partisanship of the Liberal and Conservative parties and favoured government policies based on independence and principles of business management. The UFM governed as the Progressive Party of Manitoba, and Bracken served as Manitoba's premier for over 20 years.

Bracken's government was, in most respects, conservative and cautious. It was dominated by rural interests, who controlled the

and once fired a number of government workers to show his independence from organized labour.

In the 1920s, Bracken oversaw an increase in taxation and created the provincial income tax. He lowered expenditures in health, education, and welfare but introduced a pension for all citizens over seventy years old in 1928. Under his administration, the province created a censorship board that regulated motion pictures. In 1923, Manitoba voted to end the prohibition of alcohol. The restrictive Liquor Control Act, passed that same year, sold liquor at provincially controlled outlets, resulting in the generation of a substantial new income.

Bracken worked to promote staple industries such as mining, timber cutting, and fishing, while also promoting hydroelectric power. He successfully had the

In keeping with the UFM's "anti-party" philosophy, Bracken favoured non-partisan government. In 1931, his Progressives formed an alliance with the

parties.

When Bracken left provincial politics in 1943, there were only 5 opposition Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in a 57-member parliament. His coalition remained intact until 1950 although the CCF left in 1943.

Federal politics

Despite having co-operated with the Liberals at the provincial level, Bracken was asked by a number of senior federal Conservatives (including

.

Bracken did not seek a seat in the

and remained leader of the Tories until he was pushed to resign in favour of Drew in 1948.

It has been argued, with some credibility, that Bracken never succeeded in impressing his personal authority over the national PC organization. As a western populist, he was distrusted by the party's eastern establishment. There are reports that some senior Tories wanted him removed as leader as early as 1944. More importantly, during the 1945 election, Bracken had promised conscription for the planned invasion of Japan.^[4] The Liberal Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, by contrast had promised that one division of volunteers would take part in the invasion of Japan.^[4] Operation Downfall, the code-name for the invasion of Japan, was widely expected to be bloody campaign as the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa were the "dress rehearsals" for the invasion of the Japanese home islands. Canadian public opinion was not keen on conscription for what was expected to be a campaign that would last several years.^[4]

Bracken's riding was merged into the seat of Brandon before the 1949 federal election. He was soundly defeated by Liberal incumbent James Matthews, and did not return to political life thereafter. Though his leadership of the Tories was generally viewed as a failure, he would gain some small degree of vindication in his later years as his western populist policies would be employed more successfully by John Diefenbaker, who succeeded Drew as leader in 1956, gaining the party a power base in the western provinces that would reliably support them from the late 1950s until their fall as a party of government in 1993.

Bracken died on March 18, 1969, and is buried in Rideauvale Cemetery at Kars, Ontario.

Electoral record

Federal

v t e 1949 Canadian federal election: Brandon
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Ewen Matthews	11,263	55.27
	Progressive Conservative	John Bracken	7,150	35.09
	Independent	Dwight Lyman Johnson	1,964	9.64
Total valid votes			20,377	100.00
Total rejected ballots			142
Turnout			20,519	74.64
Electors on the lists			27,489

^[5]

v t e 1945 Canadian federal election: Neepawa
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	John Bracken	6,497	46.51
	Liberal	Frederick Donald MacKenzie	4,624	33.10
	Co-operative Commonwealth	James Henry Wood	2,848	20.39
Total valid votes			13,969
Total rejected ballots			93
Turnout			14,062	82.64
Electors on the lists			17,015

^[6]

Archives

There are John Bracken fonds at the Archives of Manitoba and Library and Archives Canada.^[7]

References

• Manitoba Historical Society profile

External links

• John Bracken Archived 8 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine at The Canadian Encyclopedia

Political offices
Preceded by Robert Stirton Thornton	Manitoba Minister of Education 1922–1923	Succeeded by Charles Cannon
Preceded by Tobias Norris	Premier of Manitoba 1922–1943	Succeeded by Stuart Garson
	Manitoba President of the Council 1922–1943
Preceded by	Manitoba Provincial Lands Commissioner 1922–1923	Succeeded by Albert Prefontaine
Preceded by Tobias Norris	Manitoba Railway Commissioner 1922–1923
Preceded by Neil Cameron	Manitoba Minister of Agriculture 1923–1925
Preceded by Francis Black	Manitoba Provincial Treasurer 1925–1932	Succeeded by Ewan McPherson
Preceded by	Manitoba Minister of Public Utilities 1927–1928	Succeeded by William Clubb
Preceded by Duncan Lloyd McLeod	Manitoba Provincial Secretary 1935–1939	Succeeded by John Stewart McDiarmid
	Manitoba Railway Commissioner 1935–1940
Preceded by Donald Gordon McKenzie	Manitoba Minister of Agriculture 1936	Succeeded by Douglas Lloyd Campbell
	Manitoba Minister for the Manitoba Power Commission 1936–1940	Succeeded by Stuart Garson
Preceded by	Manitoba Minister of Dominion–Provincial Relations 1939–1940	Succeeded by William James Major
Preceded by William James Major	Manitoba Minister of Dominion–Provincial Relations 1941–1943	Succeeded by Stuart Garson
Preceded by Gordon Graydon (acting)	Leader of the Official Opposition 1945–1948	Vacant Title next held by George A. Drew
Party political offices
Preceded by Arthur Meighen	Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada 1942–1948	Succeeded by George A. Drew