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Walter Lockhart Gordon was a Canadian businessman, political leader, and finance minister who contributed greatly to the government planning of Canada’s economic development.
Gordon studied chartered accountancy, became a partner in a Toronto firm, and then became president of a company of industrial consultants. At the outbreak of World War II he was called upon by the government to advise on financial matters. He helped organize the Foreign Exchange Control Board and in 1940–42 acted as special assistant to the deputy minister of finance.
After the war, in 1946, he became chairman of the royal commissions on the Dominion civil service. In 1951 he was made chairman of the executive committee of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs and a member of the board of governors of the University of Toronto. In 1955 he was appointed to a committee investigating Canada’s economic prospects and development. He entered party politics as a Liberal in the same year, and in 1962 and subsequently he held the riding of Toronto-Davenport in the House of Commons.
He served Lester Pearson’s government as finance minister, but in 1963 his first budget brought the new government to the brink of a defeat in Commons. Much of the budget had to be withdrawn or amended, and he was widely accused of economic and administrative miscalculations. He made something of a comeback with two subsequent budgets, but in the 1965 elections he was a campaign issue because of his 11 percent sales tax on construction materials and manufacturing machinery and equipment. He helped persuade Pearson to call the 1965 elections and served as Liberal Party campaign chairman during them; when Pearson failed to achieve a clear parliamentary majority, Gordon resigned, accepting responsibility for bad political and financial advice. In 1967 he reentered the Cabinet as president of the Privy Council, but he resigned the following year.
Following his resignation he was chancellor (1973–77) of York University, Downsview, Ont. He wrote several books on Canadian politics and government.
