18 Facts About Laurence Decore

Laurence Decore married Anne Marie Fedoruk, with whom he had two children, Michael and Andrea.

Laurence Decore was involved in a number of business ventures that made him a millionaire.

Laurence Decore was a commissioned officer of the Royal Canadian Navy who taught naval accounting and supply in Montreal and was a junior officer in the Judge Advocate General's office.

Laurence Decore first sought office in the 1971 municipal election, when he ran for alderman in Ward 2.

Laurence Decore was elected as an alderman to Edmonton City Council in the 1974 election, in which he finished first of the ward's fourteen candidates.

Laurence Decore stayed out of electoral politics for the next six years, but was active in many community organizations.

Laurence Decore was president of the Ukrainian Professional and Business Men's Club, secretary of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee, president of the Professional and Business Men's Association of Canada, a member of the board of directors of the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Federation, and chairman of the Canadian Consultative Council on Multiculturalism.

Laurence Decore returned to politics in the 1983 mayoral election when he defeated Purves in a landslide, more than doubling the incumbent's vote count and establishing a new historical plurality record.

Laurence Decore was re-elected by a similar margin in 1986.

Laurence Decore oversaw the city's recovery after 1987's Edmonton Tornado and expressed the city's sadness over the Edmonton Oilers' trading Wayne Gretzky.

Taylor contested the convention, as did Edmonton Meadowlark MLA Grant Mitchell, but Laurence Decore won a decisive first ballot victory.

Laurence Decore was critical of the government's involvement in the private sector which had, in some high-profile cases, resulted in companies defaulting on huge government loans.

Laurence Decore favoured a near-immediate balancing of the provincial budget and rapid debt repayment thereafter, and declared his government "out of the business of business".

Laurence Decore now led the second-largest opposition caucus in the province's history.

Laurence Decore resigned his leadership in 1994, and did not seek re-election as MLA in the 1997 election.

Laurence Decore's father had been a prominent member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada and Laurence attended St John's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Edmonton.

Laurence Decore was admitted to the Order of Canada in 1983, and received an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Alberta in 1999.

Laurence Decore was a two-time cancer survivor, having survived colon cancer in 1990 and liver cancer two years later, but a third incidence killed him in 1999.