Clarence Decatur Howe, PC, was a powerful Canadian Cabinet minister of the Liberal Party. Howe served in the governments of Prime Ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent continuously from 1935 to 1957. He is credited with transforming the Canadian economy from agriculture-based to industrial. He died suddenly of a heart attack in December 1960.
About C. D. Howe in brief
Clarence Decatur Howe, PC, was a powerful Canadian Cabinet minister of the Liberal Party. Howe served in the governments of Prime Ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent continuously from 1935 to 1957. He is credited with transforming the Canadian economy from agriculture-based to industrial. During the Second World War, his involvement in the war effort was so extensive that he was nicknamed the \”Minister of Everything\”. Born in Massachusetts, Howe moved to Nova Scotia as a young adult to take up a professorship at Dalhousie University. After working for the Canadian government as an engineer, he began his own firm, and became a wealthy man. Howe’s impatience with the necessity for parliamentary debate of his proposals won him few friends, and he was often accused of dictatorial conduct by the Opposition. In the 1957 election, Howe’s actions and policies were made an issue by Opposition leader John Diefenbaker. Howe lost his seat in the election and became Prime Minister, ending almost 22 years of Liberal rule. Howe returned to the private sector, accepting a number of corporate directorships. He died suddenly of a heart attack in December 1960. He was buried in a private ceremony in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on December 31, 1960. His wife, the former Mary Emma Hastings, was the daughter of a prosperous farmer on whose farm Clarence spent his childhood summers. Clarence did well in school and, upon his graduation from Waltham High School in 1903, he took the entrance examinations for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He passed, and after taking basic courses at the school, did advanced work in engineering. During his summers, he worked for J. B. Worcester & Co., a firm which had constructed much of the Boston subway system. He later found his own work, and later became a successful engineer and engineer-turned-businessman. Howe would later appoint to the presidency of the National Research Council of Canada, which later became the Canada Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. His son, William Howe, was involved in local politics, and William Howe was a carpenter and house builder. Clarence was a favourite pupil of Professor George Swain, who offered Howe a job as his teaching assistant. Howe accepted, although the young engineer felt that he should leave the Boston area to begin his career. Soon afterwards, Howe was offered an opportunity to become an engineering professor in Halifax. He had little experience in the field, and on trips outside Halifax, he and his students would solve problems together. His student Denis Stairs, who would go to the countryside to lead the Stairs Engineering Company, said of Howe that by the time the time ended, his students had great respect for him. In his own time, Howe found his work to be an addition to the shirker, and gets nowhere for his work. Howe later said of Stairs: “The worker at college continues to work and get nowhere.” He later said that his presentations were always extremely clear and clear.
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