Frank Moores

Frank Duff Moores (February 18, 1933 – July 10, 2005) served as the second Premier of Newfoundland. He served as leader of the Progressive Conservatives from 1972 until his retirement in 1979. Moores was also a successful businessman in both the fishing industry and federal lobbying.

Frank Duff Moores
2nd Premier of Newfoundland
In office January 18, 1972 – March 26, 1979
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Lieutenant Governor	Ewart Harnum Gordon A. Winter
Preceded by	Joey Smallwood
Succeeded by	Brian Peckford
Member of the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly for Humber West
In office October 28, 1971 – June 18, 1979
Preceded by	Joey Smallwood
Succeeded by	Ray Baird
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Bonavista—Trinity—Conception
In office June 25, 1968 – September 17, 1971
Preceded by	New District
Succeeded by	Dave Rooney
Personal details
Born	(1933-02-18)February 18, 1933 Carbonear, Newfoundland
Died	July 10, 2005(2005-07-10) (aged 72) Perth, Ontario
Nationality	Canadian
Political party	Progressive Conservative
Other political affiliations	Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador
Spouse(s)	Dorothy Pain Janis Johnson Beth Diamond
Children	8
Alma mater	St. Andrew's College (Aurora, Ontario), Boston University
Occupation	businessman, politician
Cabinet	Minister of Fisheries (1972)

Early life and education

Born in Carbonear, Newfoundland, he was educated at St. Andrew's College in Aurora, Ontario. Moores then briefly attended Boston University in the fall of 1951, but left after two months, following an argument with one of his professors.[1] He then worked briefly in the Boston fish industry, then returned to Newfoundland, where he worked in his father's fish plant. His father, Silas Moores, was a wealthy businessman in that industry.;[2][3]

Expands family business

Moores worked with his father to expand the family business, North East Fisheries, to the stage where it became the largest fish processor in Newfoundland by the early 1960s, employing 2,000 people. With his father's death of a heart attack in July 1962, he followed through on a plan to take the company to a year-round operation from the traditional summer-autumn format, and then sold a majority interest to British owners.[4]

Politics

With no previous experience in politics, Moores was first elected in 1968 to the House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative. Tories captured six of seven seats in the province, which had been virtually completely Liberal since 1949, going against the national trend which elected Pierre Elliott Trudeau to a strong majority.

Moores was elected to a one-year term as president of the federal PC Party in 1969.[5]

In 1970, he resigned his federal seat, and became leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland. He was asked to form a government in January 1972, several months following the October 1971 election that resulted in a near tie between Joey Smallwood's Liberals and the Tories. Moores then called a new March 1972 election shortly afterwards, and won a strong majority. In the 1975 election, he won a reduced majority.[6]

As Premier, Moores advocated rural development and provincial control of natural resources as well as economic development.

After politics

He left politics in March 1979 to re-enter business, and became a lobbyist.[7]

In 1983, he was an organizer of the successful Progressive Conservative Party leadership campaign for Brian Mulroney.[8]

He served as an adviser to Mulroney while he was Prime Minister of Canada, and was appointed to the Board of Air Canada, then a Crown Corporation.

At the time, he was also working for Government Consultants International (GCI), a powerful Ottawa-based international lobbying firm, which had as clients at the time the airline firms Wardair and Nordair, which were competitors of Air Canada. Over accusations of conflict of interest, GCI then gave up Wardair and Nordair as clients. He resigned his Air Canada directorship shortly after GCI took on the Airbus file.[9]

In 1987, he became the chairman of GCI, and retired from this position in 1990. In the 1990s, he regained prominence through his alleged role in the Airbus affair.

On July 10, 2005, Moores died of liver cancer in Perth, Ontario.[10][11]

In November 2007, in the wake of new revelations about the Airbus affair by Karlheinz Schreiber, The Globe and Mail published evidence indicating that Moores had written a letter about the Airbus deal to Franz Josef Strauss, chairman of Airbus Industrie. Until his death Moores denied having any involvement in the affair.[12]

References

1. The Time of His Life, by Janice Wells, 2007.
2. The Insiders, by John Sawatsky, 1987
3. Wells
4. Wells
5. Wells
6. Wells
7. "Secret Airbus connection revealed". Retrieved 2018-09-23.
8. Brian Mulroney: The Politics of Ambition, by John Sawatsky, 1991
9. The Insiders, by John Sawatsky, 1987; On The Take, by Stevie Cameron, 1994)
10. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1121012759096_8/?hub=TopStor%5B%5D
11. "Former Newfoundland premier Frank Moores dies". CBC News. July 10, 2005. Retrieved 2015-06-07.
12. McArthur, Greg (2007-11-14). "Despite denials, Moores worked on Airbus file". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. Retrieved 2015-06-07.

External links

• Frank Duff Moores at The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Frank Moores – Parliament of Canada biography

See also

• Frank Moores: The Time of His Life, by Janice Wells, 2008, Key Porter Books, Toronto.