Michael Forrestall Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Honourable
Honorific-Suffix:PC
Riding:Halifax
Parliament:Canadian
Term Start:1965
Term End:1968
Predecessor:Gerald Regan
Successor:Riding dissolved
Riding1:Dartmouth—Cole Harbour
Parliament1:Canadian
Term Start1:1968
Term End1:1988
Predecessor1:Riding created
Successor1:Ron MacDonald
Birth Name:John Michael William Curphey Forrestall
Birth Date:23 September 1932
Birth Place:Deep Brook, Nova Scotia
Death Place:Halifax, Nova Scotia
Party:Progressive Conservative
Profession:Journalist, businessman

John Michael William Curphey Forrestall (September 23, 1932  - June 8, 2006), known as Michael Forrestall, was a Canadian politician. Forrestall served in both the Senate of Canada and House of Commons of Canada.

Political career

A Nova Scotia journalist and businessman, Forrestall was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1965 federal election as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was elected the MP for Dartmouth—Halifax East in the 1968 election, and remained in the House for a total of twenty-three years.

During the Brian Mulroney government, Forrestall served as a parliamentary secretary to a succession of ministers until he was defeated in what was by then the riding of Dartmouth in the 1988 federal election. In November 1990, Prime Minister Mulroney appointed Forrestall to the Senate of Canada, where he sat as a Progressive Conservative until February 2004, when he and most of the Tory caucus joined the new Conservative Party of Canada. Forrestall was active on a number of causes, including benefits for Canadian Merchant Navy veterans and the protection of lighthouses.

In 2000, he introduced a Private Members Bill in the Senate Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act, a bill which was also supported by Senator Pat Carney who championed it after Forrestall's death and which is close to passing in the House of Commons in 2007.[1] Forrestall's brother is the Canadian realist painter, Tom Forrestall; their sister Katherine was the mother of singer-songwriter Matthew Grimson.[2]

Death

Forrestall died on June 8, 2006, at age 73; he had been admitted to a Halifax-area hospital with serious breathing problems five days earlier.[3]

Notes and References

  1. "Lighthouse Bill Protecting Our Lighthouses - The Icons of Canada's Maritime Heritage",Canadian Heritage Foundation Featured Heritage Buildings by Douglas Franklin here
  2. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/matthew-grimson-obituary?pid=189356305 "Matthew George Grimson: Mar 9, 1968 – Jun 19, 2018"
  3. Web site: Senator in hospital. Montreal Gazette. 2006-06-09. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20121013073512/http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=3b7bd40e-9d7a-4e7d-b263-1cd164a1b0b8. 2012-10-13.