Walter Edward Harris

Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
	In office; 18 January 1950 – 30 June 1954
Prime Minister	Louis St. Laurent
Preceded by	Position created
Succeeded by	Jack Pickersgill
Minister of Public Works
	Acting; 12 June 1953 – 16 September 1953
Prime Minister	Louis St. Laurent
Preceded by	Alphonse Fournier
Succeeded by	Robert Winters
Member of Parliament; for Grey—Bruce
	In office; 26 March 1940 – 9 June 1957
Preceded by	Agnes Macphail
Succeeded by	Eric Winkler
Personal details
Born	Walter Edward Harris; 14 January 1904; Kimberley, Ontario, Canada
Died	10 January 1999 (aged 94)
Political party	Liberal
Spouse	Grace Elma Morrison
Children	3
Profession	Barrister; Lawyer;

Walter Edward Harris

QC DCL

(14 January 1904 – 10 January 1999) was a Canadian politician and lawyer.

Harris was first elected to the

Agnes MacPhail. Despite being a newly-elected MP, he enlisted in the military, served for four years, and saw action in France during World War II

.

He served as

Canadian Cabinet

.

Harris served as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration until 1954, when he was promoted to

Registered Retirement Savings Plans

, which have become a staple of the financial planning of millions of Canadians.

Before his 1956 budget speech, a journalist from the

Montreal Gazette played a joke on a colleague from La Presse

by pretending that he had received an advance copy of the budget by mistake. Harris was informed of that and began to draft a letter of resignation until he was informed that the whole story was a prank.

Harris also served as

Government House Leader from 1953 to 1957 and thus had to try to manage the government's dealings on the floor of the House of Commons during the 1956 Pipeline Debate. The government imposed closure on debate resulting in an outraged parliamentary opposition that complained of "tyranny" and public complaints that the government was acting in an arrogant manner. Harris became a casualty and lost his seat in the 1957 election that brought John Diefenbaker

to power.

In 1958, he attempted a move to provincial politics and ran for the leadership of the

Ontario Liberal leadership convention but was defeated by fewer than fifty votes by John Wintermeyer on the third ballot. Following his defeat, Harris retired from politics and returned to his law practice. He was also president and later chairman of Victoria and Grey Trust.^[1]