Remembering Axworthy’s first campaign

St. James

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/12/2024 (572 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In June 1966, my mother Lara and I attended a Liberal Party meeting at Britannia School featuring provincial Liberal leader Gil Molgat, and local provincial Liberal candidate Lloyd Axworthy, along with his brother, Tom. That campaign was the first of the 10 provincial and federal elections in which Lloyd ran.

Lloyd Axworthy was born on Dec. 21, 1939, in North Battleford, Sask., and grew up in the West and North Ends of Winnipeg. In 1958, Lloyd’s burgeoning passion for politics was ignited by hearing Lester B. Pearson speak at Winnipeg Auditorium, a meeting he was encouraged to attend by J.J. Phillips, one of his teachers at Sisler High School (Lloyd had been a participant in various Tuxis Boys Parliaments). After earning his B.A. at United College (now the University of Winnipeg), he attended Princeton University in Princeton, N.J.

After his 1965 return to Winnipeg, Lloyd Axworthy became a United College lecturer and won the Liberal Party nomination to stand as a candidate in St. James in the 1966 provincial election. At the time, he was living in the West Broadway area. The St. James riding’s boundaries ran west from St. James Street to Conway Street and included part of the base.

The rural-based Liberals were the second-place party heading into that election. Lloyd and seven other Greater Winnipeg candidates – James Smith, Ross White, Don Cook, Scott Wright, Howard Loewen, Mel Fenson and Frank Muldoon – campaigned on Winnipeg issues. The group was referred to as the Ginger Group, and its policies included increasing the minimum wage from 80 cents to $1.25, creation of a full-time labour board, a consumers’ commission, and provincial programs to assist kindergartens.

The 1966 Progressive Conservative and New Democratic Party candidates in St. James both resided on Guildford Street. PC Doug Stanes had served on the St. James council and was seeking his fourth consecutive term as MLA. He was a great constituency politician who always seemed to be at the community meeting places. On Sunday mornings, he and his wife, Bernice, walked to the worship service at Deer Lodge United Church. Both the expanded St. James Bridge, and the St. James Civic Centre opened during his third term. Stanes may have seemed vulnerable because of the PC government’s tendency to ignore MLAs from constituencies north of the Assiniboine River when creating its cabinets. The 1966 NDP candidate was Jim Rose, a Trans-Canada Air Lines mechanic.

All the members of the Ginger Group were defeated in the ’66 election, which was hold on June 23. Axworthy lost to Stanes by 790 votes, but no other Conservative candidate ever defeated Lloyd Axworthy. The PC government of Duff Roblin retained power with a reduced majority, while the Liberals remained the official Opposition. In the 1969 election the Liberals lost their rural strength and became a perennial third-place party except for a brief 1988 revival under leader Sharon Carstairs.

In the 1968 federal election, Lloyd was defeated by Stanley Knowles in Winnipeg North Centre. Between 1973 and 1997, he won eight consecutive elections – in the provincial riding of Fort Rouge and then the federal ridings of Winnipeg Fort Garry and Winnipeg South Centre. He served in the cabinets of Pierre Trudeau, John Turner, and Jean Chretien and held the transportation, labour, employment and immigration, and foreign affairs portfolios.

After 34 years of pursuing political office, Lloyd Axworthy retired from politics in 2000. But let us remember his first campaign was in St. James.