Gordon Walker

Mr. Walker has spent a lifetime in the political world – involved with elected office at municipal and provincial levels a total of 18 years (seven years as Cabinet Minister).

Called to the Bar in 1969 in Ontario, he opened his own law practice in London. Though no longer an active partner, he is Honorary Counsel, and the firm continues with the same name it has had since 1972, Walker and Wood.

He made modest history in 1966 being elected a City Councillor in London while still a student at law school, University of Western Ontario – history because, according to press clippings across Canada, 25-year-old people did not run cities the size of London, let alone still attend school.

After five years as an Alderman he was elected MPP for London North (succeeding the Honourable John P. Robarts, the prior Premier of Ontario). That was 1971, and throughout the previous decade, he held many internal party posts at the local, provincial and federal level. From 1971-1985 he was an MP for 12 of those years and spent seven of them in the Cabinet of Premier Bill Davis and Premier Frank Miller, primarily in Justice and Business portfolios.

He was Minister of Consumer and Commercial Relations twice as well as Minister of Industry and Trade and twice Provincial Secretary for Justice, and Minster of Corrections. Each portfolio had its challenges, but in essence he was known as a defender of business interests, a free enterpriser, a regulation fighter and a champion of victim justice.

His book, A Conservative Canada (1983), received a great deal of public attention, and became what press reports claim to be the basis of the Common Sense Revolution. It was independently distributed to every delegate attending the federal PC convention in June of 1983, which saw the election of Brian Mulroney as party leader.

In 1985, he was defeated in the general election which saw the PC party in Ontario reduced to minority. He became Counsel to two large law firms: Holden Murdoch & Findlay (which became Holden Day Wilson) for the first 10 years and more recently Miller Thomson in 1991, retiring in 1998 to enlarge his consulting firm and grow a brokerage firm (limited market securities dealer) that he has been partner in since 1987 (First Canadian Property Investments). During this period of time (1992-1995), he was also Canadian Commissioner on the International Joint Commission – a semi-diplomatic post, controlling the international waterways between Canada and United States.

He was a vital member of the team that kept former Premier Mike Harris in office. He was Chief Corporate Fundraiser to the Premier, having been in this role since 1993 (following the same role for Mr. Mulroney up to 1993). Following Harris’ departure in 2002, he has continued his fundraising for a variety of political causes, provincially and federally, and for various charitable causes, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

He has been an independent director of two TSX listed companies, one of which was Hollinger Inc. (fall 2004- July 19, 2005). He shepherded Hollinger through the most controversial of times – times so explosive and troubled, constantly under the eye of the press and public scrutiny in a setting fraught with abundant and ever-present litigation, that to have survived unscathed and intact was in itself a feat of no mean accomplishment. Three of the Directors at Hollinger, who were removed from office, are now incarcerated in the U.S.

He has returned to his brokerage firm, First Canadian, and his consulting practice. As well, he continues in law practice at Walker and Wood on a part-time basis.