30 Facts About Paul Hellyer

Paul Theodore Hellyer was a Canadian engineer, politician, writer, and commentator.

Paul Hellyer was the longest serving member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada at the time of his death.

Paul Hellyer attempted to become an RCAF pilot himself, but was told no more pilots were necessary, after which he joined the Royal Canadian Artillery and served in Canada as a gunner for the duration of the war.

Paul Hellyer earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in 1949.

Paul Hellyer served a brief stint as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of National Defence.

Paul Hellyer was then named Associate Minister of National Defence in the cabinet of Prime Minister Louis St Laurent.

Paul Hellyer returned to parliament in a 1958 by-election in the neighbouring riding of Trinity, and became an opposition critic of John Diefenbaker's Progressive Conservative government.

Paul Hellyer contested the 1968 Liberal leadership election, placing second on the first ballot, but slipped to third on the second and third ballots, and withdrew to support Robert Winters on the fourth ballot, in which Pierre Trudeau won the leadership.

In 1969, Paul Hellyer issued a major report on housing and urban renewal in which he advocated incremental reforms rather than new government programs.

Paul Hellyer called for greater flexibility in Canada's mortgage loan system and encouraged corporate pension funds to invest more money in housing programs.

Paul Hellyer resigned from the cabinet in 1969 after a dispute with Trudeau over the implementation of the housing program.

From 1971, Paul Hellyer sat in Parliament as an independent, and after failing to form a new political party called Action Canada, he was invited by PC leader Robert Stanfield to join the PC caucus.

Paul Hellyer returned to prominence as an opposition critic and was re-elected in the 1972 election as a Progressive Conservative but lost his seat in the 1974 election.

Paul Hellyer's views were too right wing for most delegates, and he alienated many PCs with a speech attacking Red Tories as not being "true conservatives".

Paul Hellyer finished a distant sixth of eight contestants on the second ballot; Joe Clark won the leadership.

Paul Hellyer rejoined the Liberal Party in 1982 but remained mostly silent in politics.

Paul Hellyer contested the Liberal nomination in the Toronto riding of St Paul's in 1988, losing to Aideen Nicholson who had defeated Hellyer 14 years previously when a PC MP in the adjacent riding of Trinity.

Under Prime Minister Trudeau, Paul Hellyer served as Canada's only Senior Minister from April 1968 until resigning from the post in 1969.

In 1997, Paul Hellyer formed the Canadian Action Party to provide voters with an economic nationalist option following the collapse of the National Party of Canada.

Paul Hellyer believed that both the Progressive Conservative and Liberal parties were embracing globalization, and that the New Democratic Party was no longer able to provide a credible alternative.

Paul Hellyer's party remained a little-noticed minor party, and Hellyer lost bids for a seat in the House of Commons of Canada in the 1997 and 2000 elections.

Paul Hellyer resigned as CAP leader, but remained a member of the party.

On June 3,1967, Hellyer inaugurated an unidentified flying object landing pad in St Paul, Alberta.

In early September 2005, Paul Hellyer made headlines by publicly announcing that he believed in the existence of UFOs.

The Ottawa Citizen reported in 2007 that Paul Hellyer was demanding world governments disclose alien technology that could be used to solve the problem of climate change.

Paul Hellyer was one of the earliest investors in the Toronto Sun in 1971.

Paul Hellyer served as a syndicated columnist for the newspaper between 1974 and 1984.

Paul Hellyer resided in Toronto and had three children and five grandchildren.

Paul Hellyer died in Toronto on August 8,2021 of complications from a fall, two days after his 98th birthday.

Paul Hellyer has written several books on Canada and globalization, including One Big Party: To Keep Canada Independent, in which he promoted the merger of the CAP, NDP, and various left-wing activists to save Canada from the effects of globalization, as well as possible annexation by the United States.