15 Facts About Norman Jaques

Norman Jaques was a Canadian farmer and federal politician.

Norman Jaques was born in London, England, and attended Eastborne College in Sussex.

Norman Jaques moved to Canada in 1901, and became a farmer in Mirror, Alberta.

Norman Jaques sought to establish a horse-breeding farm at one stage, but later abandoned the project.

Norman Jaques had retired from farming before starting his political career.

Norman Jaques first ran for the Canadian House of Commons in the 1935 federal election, and defeated Cooperative Commonwealth Federation incumbent William Irvine amid a landslide victory for Social Credit candidates in Alberta.

Norman Jaques died in office in 1949, having been re-nominated as a Social Credit candidate for the 1949 federal election.

Norman Jaques spent his entire parliamentary career as an opposition member.

The Social Credit movement gained a reputation for anti-Semitism in its early years, and Norman Jaques was widely regarded as the most anti-Semitic member of the party's parliamentary grouping.

Norman Jaques believed that an international Jewish conspiracy was responsible for both communism and Zionism.

Norman Jaques opposed allowing Jewish refugees into Canada prior to World War II on the argument that they constituted a communist invasion force, and once dismissed the charge of anti-Semitism against him as a "communist smokescreen".

Norman Jaques later retracted his support for Smith, and said that most of the quotations attributed to him by the Gazette were fabrications.

Norman Jaques did describe Smith as having "done more to expose communist plots that any other public man in the United States of America", and said that he would try to do the same in Canada.

Norman Jaques was an opponent of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which he accused of promoting communism.

Toward the end of his life, Norman Jaques's writings were banned from the official Social Credit party journal.