Speaker of the House of Representatives John Fraser was passionate about the environment

John Fraser initially did not want the job that is now key to his political legacy. In 1986, a year after resigning as Brian Mulroney’s Fisheries Minister over his role in a contaminated tuna scandal, the opportunity arose to run for Speaker of the House of Commons.

Fellow MPs asked Mr Fraser, the Progressive Conservative MP for Vancouver South, to run for the post. “I said no,” he later recalled in an oral history.

Mr Fraser had gone through a difficult time. He was pilloried in the media and even by his own party, with Mr Mulroney saying it was “pretty damn clear” that Mr Fraser should never have allowed the tuna, which inspectors deemed unfit for human consumption was branded, was sold in the United States. Canadian stores

Yet he remained in politics. “He was very resilient and very driven by making a difference and serving your country,” Mary Fraser, one of his three daughters, said in an interview.

He once said to young people who aspire to a political career: ‘You should never give up.’

On his own advice, he yielded to persuasion and sought the Speaker’s post. “I got drawn into it,” he recalled in the oral history interview, which he did 28 years later for the Japanese-Canadian Cultural Center.

Mr Fraser’s name stood and he won, beating 39 other MPs. He became the first Speaker to be elected by secret ballot, ending the routine of the Prime Minister nominating an MP for the approval of other MPs. Today, such elections are routine.

As Speaker, he was responsible for directing the work of the House of Commons and directing its administration, and for performing ceremonial duties.

Mary Fraser now says her father quickly learned he had the ability to lead. “At the end of the day, that’s what Dad was always passionate about: making change in the areas he cared about,” she told The Globe and Mail.

“I don’t think he initially realized the impact he could have in that role, and as he evolved into it, he realized his ability to collaborate and work in partnerships with members that crossed party lines.”

Later, Mr. Fraser came to an interesting view of the job. “I find myself a combination of pastor and social worker, counselor and mediator, and often a friend and confidante,” he wrote in the foreword to The House of Commons at worka book from 1993.

Mr Fraser would ultimately serve as chairman for seven years, having been re-elected to the position in 1988. He was generally well regarded for his work. The MP who may have left in scandal lives on in his reputation as a remarkable occupant of the office, with his portrait in the House of Commons and a record that has inspired many, including the current holder of the office.

Mr. Fraser died April 7 in Vancouver from complications of heart and kidney failure. He was 92.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May first met Mr Fraser when he was Joe Clark’s environment minister and credits him with setting Canada’s course on tackling acid rain, among other issues. She said he was a Christian who believed that we all have an immortal soul, and that the Lord had brought imperfect beings like us all into this world. “We have a moral obligation to take care of that world,” she remembered him saying.

“I loved John Fraser very much,” she said. “He became something of a mentor to me, certainly a friend.”

Mary Fraser once asked her father where his passion for the environment came from. “His first response to me was, ‘I like fishing.’ As a child he loved fishing and he respected and appreciated the importance of protecting the entire ecosystem.”

As chairman, Mr Fraser’s notable statements included calling out the government for the “ill-conceived” move of taking out newspaper advertisements about changes to the Goods and Services Tax before passing legislation on the issue. As Gary Levy notes in his 1996 book Speakers of the House of Commonsthe opposition had argued that the government had no right to assume that the legislation would be passed. He also spoke out against the conclusion of the debate on the 1988 Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement.

Mr Fraser oversaw the creation of a public information office for the House of Commons. He introduced green measures on recycling and other issues in the workings of the House, and launched a taskforce on the accessibility of the Commons for people with disabilities. He was also present as chairman when the federal government announced reparations for Japanese Canadians for internment actions during World War II.

Greg Fergus, the current Speaker of the House of Commons, was a teenage page in the House of Representatives during Mr Fraser’s term as Speaker. He remembers the guidance Mr. Fraser provided to the pages, students from across Canada who provide services to MPs in the House of Commons.

“He encouraged all of us to be… very kind to everyone you meet. Yes, of course, for parliamentarians. But he said, be nice to the cleaning staff, to the security guards and to the people who work in the newspaper department,” Mr. Fergus recalled in an interview.

He said Mr Fraser told the pages they had an opportunity to learn from these people who know Parliament Hill. “I took that to heart,” Mr Fergus said. “It wasn’t until after his death that I realized that I gave that advice to everyone I met on the Hill. I gave that advice as Speaker. It made me think, ‘That’s where I got it from.’”

Jim Watson, who Mr Fraser hired as his communications director in 1987, said Mr Fraser was committed to the institution of Parliament. “He was frustrated when Parliament wasn’t working. Ultimately, his job was to maintain a degree of order so that members had the voice to stand up for voters,” said Mr. Watson, who eventually became minister and mayor of Ottawa.

In the partisan environment of the House of Commons, Mr Watson noted that, among other measures aimed at bringing MPs together, Mr Fraser was practicing “culinary diplomacy”, inviting MPs from different parties for meals so everyone could get to know each other .

Mr Fraser was a mentor in proper politics, Mr Watson said, adding that the older politician taught him to accept that you are not always right, and that the person you are debating is not always wrong, and that people largely get into politics for the right reasons. “He was such a decent individual,” Mr Watson said.

John Allen Fraser was born on December 15, 1931 in Yokohama, Japan, the son of Clarence and Lottie Fraser. Clarence worked in Japan selling lumber from British Columbia for H.R. MacMillan, which founded the H.R. MacMillan Export Co. founded, which would grow into forestry giant MacMillan Bloedel Ltd.

In 1934 the family returned to Canada, eventually settling in Vancouver. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, young John was harassed by other children because of his native country, he later recalled. “I came home covered in mud and angry, as angry as you can believe. I was not intimidated. “I was just furious,” he said.

As a teenager, he went to work at a sawmill in BC Interior, eventually studying law at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Many people were Liberal, or affiliated with the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, the forerunner of the NDP, and Mr Fraser, feeling, as he said, “naughty”, leaned towards the Conservatives.

In 1959 he met Cate Findlay in Vancouver through mutual friends. They shared a love of skiing, and he invited her to accompany him to Mount Baker in Washington state. They went in Mr. Fraser’s two-seater car so they didn’t have to give anyone else a ride and could get to the slopes faster, Mary Fraser said. In 1960, they were married in her hometown of Carleton Place, in the Ottawa area.

Before entering politics, Mr. Fraser worked as a lawyer in Vancouver. In 1968 he challenged Arthur Laing, who happened to be his father’s friend, for Vancouver South. Mr Fraser was defeated but tried again in 1972 when Mr Laing did not stand for re-election.

Mr Fraser won the seat and began his political career, including a failed bid in 1976 to lead the Progressive Conservatives.

In 1993, he declined to run for re-election, ending his career in elected politics. A year later, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien appointed him ambassador to the United Nations for the environment and sustainable development. He held this position until 2001.

He was busy with politics. Among other commitments, he served on the board of directors of the Pacific Salmon Foundation for twelve years, ending in 2007, as chairman of the federal Pacific Fisheries Resources Conservation Council, as director of the Oceans Network Canada, which operated with the support of the University of Victoria, and as honorary lieutenant colonel and honorary colonel for the Seaforth Highlanders.

“He was still involved in things until about five years ago, and then he just started to decline,” Mary Fraser said.

Her mother had dementia that began escalating in 2014, and Mr Fraser focused on caring for her. The couple had retired to Whistler, but that became too challenging. They moved to a retirement home where she provided care. Cate Fraser passed away in 2019.

Mr. Fraser, named to both the Order of British Columbia and the Order of Canada, is survived by three daughters, Sheena, Anna and Mary, as well as seven granddaughters.

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