Mark Smerchanski

Mark G. Smerchanski (November 1, 1914 – September 21, 1989) was a Canadian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1962 to 1966, and a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1968 to 1972. Smerchanski was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada and the Manitoba Liberal Party.

Early life and Career Born in Malonton, Manitoba, the son of Anton Smerchanski and Dora Huley, both of Ukrainian descent, Smerchanski was educated at the University of Manitoba and the Virginia Polytechnical Institute, graduating in 1938. He worked as a professor of Engineering before entering politics, and was a member of the Canadian Institute for Mining and Metallurgy, the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, the Pan-American Institute of Mining Engineers and the Society of Economic Geologists. In 1953, he was appointed to the inaugural Board of Commissioners of the Winnipeg Transit System.

Provincial politics Smerchanski was a successful businessman, and was a leading organizer in the Manitoba Liberal Party long before he first ran for office himself. When Douglas Campbell resigned as Liberal leader in 1961, Smerchanski entered the race to succeed him and initially emerged as the frontrunner. He resigned on the weekend of the convention, however, and allowed Gildas Molgat to take his place as a candidate. Molgat won the contest on the first ballot,

Return to provincial politics He sought a return to the Manitoba legislature in the 1973 election, running in the rural constituency of Emerson.

Legacy There is currently a Mark Smerchanski Memorial Prize in Women's Studies offered by the University of Manitoba, and the Mark G. Smerchanski Prize in geology/geophysics.

Electoral history