Robert Muir

Robert Muir (10 November 1919 – 31 August 2011) was a Canadian Member of Parliament, first in the House of Commons and later in the Senate. Muir sat in both chambers as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He was born in Scotland and raised on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Before he became a politician, he was also a miner, a union official, a salesman and a businessman during his career. He died at his home in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in 2011.

Early life Muir was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 10 November 1919. After his father died in 1920, he and his mother immigrated to Canada. After leaving school in grade 8, he worked in the coal mines until injuries ended his ability to do so.

Political career Muir began politics as a member of the Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia municipal council, where he served from 1948 to 1958. He entered federal politics in the 1957 Canadian general election, winning the Cape Breton North and Victoria electoral district in Nova Scotia.

On 28 March 1979, two-days after an election call, Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau appointed Muir to the Senate. Muir sat in the self-designated Senate division of Cape Breton-The Sydneys.