Gordon Taylor

Gordon Edward Taylor (July 20, 1910 - July 26, 2003) was a Canadian politician, businessman and teacher.

Provincial political career

He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1940 provincial election representing Drumheller for Social Credit and continued to sit in the legislature for 39 years. He survived the 1971 defeat of the Social Credit government and remained in the legislature until 1979. Taylor was Social Credit's parliamentary whip from 1943 to 1950. From 1951 to 1971, he served as Minister of Highways in the governments of Ernest Manning and Harry Strom. During his tenure, 8,401 kilometers of highways were paved, and Highway 2 between Calgary and Edmonton was planned. He was also minister of telephones from 1950 to 1959. While a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) during World War II, he also served with the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Taylor ran twice for the party leadership, coming in second to Harry Strom in the 1968 leadership election to replace Ernest Manning and coming in third in the 1973 leadership race.

As an opposition MLA in the 1970s, Taylor broke with Social Credit over his support for the Lougheed government's plan to provide gasoline to farmers, a measure the Social Credit party opposed. Taylor also felt the Social Credit caucus was "moving to the left" and was supporting the federal Liberals. As a result, Taylor sat as an Independent Social Credit MLA supporting Peter Lougheed, and was...
Read More