Davie Fulton Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Honourable
Davie Fulton
Office:Minister of Public Works
Primeminister:John Diefenbaker
Term Start:August 9, 1962
Term End:April 21, 1963
Predecessor:Howard Charles Green (acting)
Successor:Jean-Paul Deschatelets
Office1:Minister of Justice
Attorney General of Canada
Primeminister1:John Diefenbaker
Term Start1:June 21, 1957
Term End1:August 8, 1962
Predecessor1:Stuart Garson
Successor1:Donald Fleming
Office2:Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
Primeminister2:John Diefenbaker
Term Start2:June 21, 1957
Term End2:May 11, 1958
Predecessor2:Jack Pickersgill
Successor2:Ellen Fairclough
Termlabel2:Acting
Riding3:Kamloops
Parliament3:Canadian
Term Start3:November 8, 1965
Term End3:June 24, 1968
Predecessor3:Charles Willoughby
Successor3:Riding dissolved
Parliament4:Canadian
Term Start4:June 11, 1945
Term End4:April 7, 1963
Predecessor4:Thomas O'Neill
Successor4:Charles Willoughby
Birth Name:Edmund Davie Fulton
Birth Date:March 10, 1916
Birth Place:Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada
Death Place:Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Children:3
Party:Progressive Conservative
Parents:Frederick John Fulton
Winnifred Mary Davie
Relatives:A. E. B. Davie (maternal grandfather)
Theodore Davie (granduncle)

Edmund Davie Fulton (March 10, 1916  - May 22, 2000) was a Canadian Rhodes Scholar, politician and judge. He was born in Kamloops, British Columbia,[1] the son of politician/lawyer Frederick John Fulton and Winnifred M. Davie, daughter of A. E. B. Davie. He was the youngest of 4 children.[2]

Military career

Davie Fulton served in the Second World War with the Canadian Army overseas as Platoon and Company Commander with Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, and as Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General with the 1st Canadian Infantry Division in the Italian and Northwestern Europe campaigns. His brother John "Moose" Fulton distinguished himself in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. He went missing in action in late 1942, and in 1943 Kamloops adopted the Moose Squadron in honour of its commander. In 1944 the Kamloops airport was dedicated as Fulton Field.[3]

Political career

He was brought home from the war by the Conservative Party and won a seat by 100 votes in the House of Commons of Canada in the 1945 general election.

In 1949 he introduced legislation to criminalize the publication, distribution, and sale of crime comics, as the result of a murder by two Yukon teens that was blamed on the influence of the crime comics which the perpetrators had read.[4]

He ran for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada at the 1956 leadership convention, placing third behind John Diefenbaker.

When Diefenbaker led the party to victory in the 1957 election, he appointed Fulton to Cabinet as Minister of Justice. As Minister, Fulton was involved in negotiations to patriate the Canadian Constitution, and developed the "Fulton–Favreau formula". In 1962, he became Minister of Public Works. His cousin, Albert McPhillips, was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries around this time.

He resigned from Cabinet in 1963, when he decided to leave federal politics and take the leadership of the British Columbia Progressive Conservative Party. His efforts to revive the provincial Tories in BC were a failure, and he returned to the House of Commons in the 1965 election.

Fulton stood as a candidate at the 1967 federal PC leadership convention, and placed third behind Robert Stanfield and Dufferin Roblin.

After losing his seat in the 1968 election, he retired from politics and returned to the law. In 1973, he became a justice on the British Columbia Supreme Court, and served until 1981. From 1986 to 1992, he served as a commissioner on the International Joint Commission.

In 1992, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He died in Vancouver on May 22, 2000.[5]

Archives

There is a Davie Fulton fonds at Library and Archives Canada.[6]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Encyclopedia: Davie Fulton . The Canadian Encyclopedia . 13 February 2008 . Williams . Patricia .
  2. Web site: Names - B3 . 2009-12-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20091102112005/http://www.billminer.ca/dbfiles/b3.htm#P140 . 2009-11-02 . dead .
  3. Web site: Names - B4 . 2010-02-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110706165946/http://www.billminer.ca/dbfiles/b4.htm#P146 . 2011-07-06 . dead .
  4. Book: Hadju, David . The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America . David Hadju . Farrar, Straus and Giroux . 2008 . 152-153 . New York . 9780312428235.
  5. News: Former federal cabinet minister dead at 84 . 24 May 2000 . Downey . Donn . The Globe and Mail.
  6. Web site: E. Davie Fulton fonds, Library and Archives Canada. 2020-09-03.