Background
Born in Larne, Northern Ireland, the son of Nathaniel Turk and Mary O"Lynn, Turk came to Canada with his family in 1910, and was educated at Lord Selkirk School.
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Alexander Turk
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He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as a Liberal-Progressive from 1953 to 1958. He was a wrestling promoter and president of the Giants Baseball Club, and was known in politics as a charismatic showman. Some cr him with introducing modern professional wrestling to Manitoba in 1946 with his company, the NWA-affiliated Alex Turk Promotions.
In later years, he would promote Verne Gagne, Pat O"Connor, Bruno Sammartino, Haystacks Calhoun, Lou Thesz and others in the region.
He was eventually pushed out of business by competition from the American Wrestling Association. Turk"s election to the Manitoba legislature was somewhat unexpected.
He finished seventh out of eleven candidates on the multi-member constituency"s first count, behind two other Liberal-Progressive candidates. He did well on transfers, however, and defeated fellow Liberal-Progressive J.M. Kozoriz for the final position.
In the legislature, he served as a backbench supporter of Douglas Campbell"s government.
Turk was on the left-wing of the Liberal-Progressive Party. The following year, he was the only Liberal-Progressive Modern Language Association to endorse a bill calling for progressive prison reforms. Winnipeg"s multi-member constituencies were eliminated in the 1958 election, and Turk lost to Steve Peters of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation by 856 votes in the newly created riding of Elmwood.
He ran again in the 1959 election, but finished third.
After leaving provincial politics, Turk was elected to the Winnipeg City Council. In 1964, he lost his seat on council to another Council for Exceptional Children candidate.
Politics
In the 1953 election, he ran as a candidate of the Liberal-Progressive Party in Winnipeg North, a constituency dominated by the socialist Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and the communist Labour Progressive Party.
Membership
In 1954, he was the only member of the government caucus to support a Cleveland Clinic Foundation bill calling for comprehensive health insurance. Though a member of the conservative Civic Election Committee, he again showed himself to be a progressive representative on issues relating to workers, pensioners and the handicapped, and often voted with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation group.
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Born
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Died
January 1, 1988 (aged 81) -
Nationality
Canada -
Political Party
Manitoba Liberal Party