Hazen Argue

Hazen Robert Argue (January 6, 1921 – October 2, 1991) was a Canadian politician who served in the House of Commons and the Senate. He was first elected as a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) Member of Parliament (MP) in 1945 and was the last leader of the party, from 1960 to 1961. He crossed the floor to the Liberal Party in 1962 and was defeated in 1963. In 1966 he was appointed to the Senate. He entered the federal cabinet in 1980, as the only Saskatchewan representative, with responsibilities for the Canadian Wheat Board. He is well known for being a strong proponent of the proposed Canadian annexation of the Turks and Caicos Islands. He was the first senator ever to have been charged with fraud, in 1989. The charges were eventually dropped.

Political career Political beginnings

His family owned a farm, which he worked until he entered the House of Commons. He was first elected to Parliament in 1945 as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). After Coldwell resigned as the national CCF leader in 1960, Argue was elected leader at the party's last convention in the summer of 1960.

At the time, the CCF was engaged in a three-year plan to create a new party from the union between itself and organized labour forces as represented by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). Both the CCF and CLC executives approved going down this route starting in April 1958. Argue, like many grassroot CCFers, was not convinced that this merger was necessarily the best route to revitalizing the party. This gave credibility to the forces organizing to remodel the CCF along the British Labour Party model. Douglas had the support of the CLC, its president Claude Jodoin and CCF president David Lewis. He remained in the party's caucus, in the House of Commons, for the rest of the year, having little contact with Douglas in that time. In 1966, Argue was appointed to the Senate as a Liberal.

After the 1980 election, in which the Liberal Party failed to win any seats west of Winnipeg, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau appointed Argue to Cabinet as Minister of State (Canada Wheat Board).

Senate of Canada In 1989, he became the first senator ever charged with misuse of public funds and fraud. The charges were dropped in 1991 by the crown prosecutor when it became apparent that Argue was near death, as he had been bedridden for most of the year with cancer. He died three months later in Regina, on October 2, 1991.

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