Gordon Beard

Education

Beard was educated at Neepawa schools, and worked in a variety of projects in northern Manitoba.

Career

He served as President of Norrec Limited., and Secretary of Arctic Investments Limited., as well as becoming President of the Northern Restaurants Association through a hotel project that he owned. In 1960, he moved to Thompson. Beard was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in January 1963, in a deferred race from the 1962 general election.

Running in the vast northern constituency of Churchill, he defeated Liberal candidate Francis Bud Jobin by 197 votes.

He was re-elected by a greater margin in the 1966 election. Beard resigned from the Progressive Conservative Party and stepped down as an Modern Language Association in 1968, complaining that the Personal Computer government was neglecting northern affairs

He later attended the Liberal Party"s nomination meeting for the by-election that chose his successor. He ran as an independent in the 1969 election, and narrowly defeated three other candidates to regain the Churchill riding.

Foreign the next three years, Beard was a legitimately independent Modern Language Association—siding with or against the NDP government of Edward Schreyer on a case-by-case basis.

He died in Thompson of a heart attack in 1972. The Gordon Beard arena in Thompson was named in his honour.

Achievements

• He served in the Canadian Army from 1942 to 1945, attaining the rank of Sergeant.

Membership

He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Manitoba Legislature from 1963 to 1968, and an independent member from 1969 to 1972.