Sidney Spivak was a Cabinet minister in the governments of Dufferin Roblin, Walter Weir and Sterling Lyon, and was himself leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba from 1971 to 1975.
16 Facts About Sidney Spivak
1.
2.
Sidney Spivak worked as a barrister and became Vice-President of Golden Age Beverages Limited and Mathers Investments Limited as well.
3.
In 1955, Sidney Spivak married Mira Steele; they had three children together.
4.
Sidney Spivak was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba in the 1966 provincial election, in the riding of River Heights, which was then in far southwest Winnipeg.
5.
Sidney Spivak continued to hold this position after Walter Weir became premier in 1967.
6.
Weir's Progressive Conservatives were defeated in the 1969 election, although Sidney Spivak was easily re-elected in his own riding.
7.
Sidney Spivak represented an urban and progressive wing within the party, and did not have the complete confidence of his caucus, which was dominated by more right-wing figures.
8.
Sidney Spivak specifically rejected Asper's laissez-faire economic policies, and promised to govern as a centrist.
9.
Shortly after the vote, Sidney Spivak claimed that the party would have difficulty being elected on a right-wing platform.
10.
Lyon led the PCs to victory at the 1977 election and Sidney Spivak was appointed as a Minister without Portfolio in the Lyon cabinet.
11.
Sidney Spivak lost to Liberal Lloyd Axworthy, later a high-ranking federal cabinet minister, by 485 out of 45,757 votes.
12.
Sidney Spivak served on the Churchill Regional Health Authority Board in the late 1990s.
13.
Sidney Spivak wanted to be appointed Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba in 1993, but Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, through Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn, appointed Yvon Dumont instead.
14.
Sidney Spivak served on the board of governors of the University of Manitoba and on the board of directors for the Saint Boniface Hospital.
15.
Sidney Spivak died of a heart attack in Winnipeg in 2002.
16.
Sidney Spivak's widow Mira Spivak was a member of the Senate of Canada from Manitoba from 1986 until she took mandatory retirement on her seventy-fifth birthday in 2009.