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Andrew Brewin
Andrew Brewin, c. 1938.jpg
Brewin, c. 1938
Member of Parliament
for Greenwood
In office
1962–1979
Preceded by James Macdonnell
Succeeded by Riding redistributed into Beaches and York East
Personal details
Born
Francis Andrew Brewin

(1907-09-03)3 September 1907
Brighton, England
Died 21 September 1983(1983-09-21) (aged 76)
Political party
Spouse
Peggy Biggar
(m. 1935)
Children John Brewin
Residences Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Profession Lawyer

Francis Andrew Brewin QC (1907–1983) was a lawyer and Canadian politician and Member of Parliament. He was the grandson of Liberal cabinet minister Andrew George Blair. His son John Brewin also served in the House of Commons of Canada.

Biography

Born on 3 September 1907 in Brighton, England, Brewin was a stalwart in the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and ran numerous times at the federal and provincial levels in the 1940 and 1950s. As a lawyer in the 1940s, he was retained by the Co-operative Committee on Japanese Canadians to contest the federal government's deportation orders affecting thousands of Japanese Canadians. Led by Brewin, the "Japanese Canadian Reference Case" was heard by the Supreme Court of Canada and later, on appeal, by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Brewin was also retained by a committee of Japanese Canadians who had been detained during the Second World War as "enemy aliens" in order to try to have their property restored. He succeeded in persuading the government to call a royal commission to investigate the question.

In 1945, he was asked by Ontario CCF leader Ted Jolliffe to be co-counsel during the infamous LeBel Royal Commission that was looking into whether or not Ontario's premier at the time was employing a secret political police force. He was, for a time, the President of the Ontario CCF and was a candidate for the leadership of the Ontario CCF at the party's 1953 leadership convention, but lost to Donald C. MacDonald.

Brewin stood as a CCF candidate several times, starting with the 1945 Canadian federal election in the riding of St. Paul's, but was unsuccessful. He was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada on behalf of the CCF's successor, the New Democratic Party. Brewin sat as Member of Parliament for the Toronto riding of Greenwood from the 1962 election until his retirement in 1979.

Coming from the theological tradition of figures such as Richard Hooker, F. D. Maurice, and William Temple, Andrew Brewin considered himself a Christian socialist and wrote a number of books and pamphlets on the topic. He was a member of the Fellowship for a Christian Social Order and the League for Social Reconstruction.

Andrew Brewin wrote the book Stand on Guard: The Search for a Canadian Defence Policy, published by McClelland & Stewart in 1965, that explored Canada's military's changing role in the mid-twentieth century, including its participation in the then new concept of United Nations peacekeeping.

His son John Brewin later served in Parliament. He also had four daughters: Margaret Wilbur; Martha Hynna, who served as secretary general of the Canadian Human Rights Commission; Mary Lewis, who served as chief mission and research officer of the Heart and Stroke Foundation; and Jane Morley, QC, who served as child and youth officer for British Columbia.

Brewin died on 21 September 1983.

Electoral record

Canadian federal election, 1957: Davenport
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative M. Douglas Morton 8,989 40.7 -0.4
Liberal Paul Hellyer 6,665 30.2 -2.1
Co-operative Commonwealth F. Andrew Brewin 6,414 29.1 +6.2
Total valid votes 22,068 100.0
Canadian federal election, 1958: Davenport
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative M. Douglas Morton 12,117 48.6 +7.8
Liberal Paul Hellyer 7,872 31.5 +1.3
Co-operative Commonwealth F. Andrew Brewin 4,963 19.9 -9.2
Total valid votes 24,952 100.0
Canadian federal election, 1962: Greenwood
Party Candidate Votes
New Democratic Andrew Brewin 9,238
Progressive Conservative James Macdonnell 8,694
Liberal Thomas Edgar Reilly 6,338
Social Credit George B. McLenon 233
Canadian federal election, 1963: Greenwood
Party Candidate Votes
New Democratic Andrew Brewin 9,421
Progressive Conservative John Hilton 7,221
Liberal T. Edgar Reilly 7,207
Social Credit Peter Lonsdale 224
Canadian federal election, 1965: Greenwood
Party Candidate Votes
New Democratic Andrew Brewin 10,590
Liberal Martin P. O'Connell 5,952
Progressive Conservative Mike Beach 5,573
Canadian federal election, 1968: Greenwood
Party Candidate Votes
New Democratic Andrew Brewin 12,117
Liberal Walter James 11,755
Progressive Conservative Gordon Stewart 8,268
Canadian federal election, 1972: Greenwood
Party Candidate Votes
New Democratic Andrew Brewin 14,261
Progressive Conservative William E. Taylor 11,190
Liberal Larry Glass 7,722
Social Credit George Alexander Leslie 117
Not affiliated Carl Blashill 79
Canadian federal election, 1974: Greenwood
Party Candidate Votes
New Democratic Andrew Brewin 11,038
Liberal Joe James 10,922
Progressive Conservative Chad Bark 9,589
Independent Alex Lauder 91
Social Credit Geo. A. Leslie 76
Marxist–Leninist Jim R. McKibbin 64
Not affiliated Bret Smiley 4

See also

  • Internment of Japanese Canadians
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