George Nowlan

George Clyde Nowlan PC (14 August 1898 – 31 May 1965) was a Canadian Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister. A member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, he served as Minister of Finance in the government of John Diefenbaker, and was also responsible for the CBC.

The Honourable George Nowlan PC
Minister of Finance
In office 9 August 1962 – 21 April 1963
Prime Minister	John Diefenbaker
Preceded by	Donald Fleming
Succeeded by	Walter L. Gordon
Minister of National Revenue
In office 21 June 1957 – 8 August 1962
Prime Minister	John Diefenbaker
Preceded by	James Joseph McCann
Succeeded by	Hugh John Flemming
Member of Parliament for Digby—Annapolis—Kings Annapolis—Kings (1950-1953)
In office 19 June 1950 – 8 November 1965
Preceded by	Angus Elderkin
Succeeded by	Pat Nowlan
In office 13 December 1948 – 27 June 1949
Preceded by	James Lorimer Ilsley
Succeeded by	Riding dissolved
Member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly for Kings
In office 25 June 1925 – 22 August 1933
Preceded by	James Sealy, John Alexander McDonald
Succeeded by	John Alexander McDonald
Personal details
Born	(1898-08-14)14 August 1898 Havelock, Nova Scotia, Canada
Died	31 May 1965(1965-05-31) (aged 66) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Political party	Progressive Conservative
Spouse	Miriam Chisholm ​ (m. 1923)​
Children	4, including Pat
Occupation	Barrister Lawyer

Early life and education

Nowlan was born on 14 August 1898 in Havelock, Nova Scotia to the irish-Canadian Charles Randall Nowlan and his wife Hattie Euphemia DeLong.^[1] Nowlan was a soldier in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War. After the war ended, he returned to the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia and attended Acadia University to study for a Bachelor of Arts, graduating in 1920. He then studied law at Dalhousie University.

Political career

Nowlan was an MLA in the Nova Scotia Legislature in the 1920s, and was always known for his reputation as a hard worker and a Party Man. He served a term as the Progressive Conservative Party's president. While serving as Minister of National Revenue in 1962, he forbid Customs to censor or ban entrance to any publication unless a Canadian court had already ruled it to be "obscene", rather than using their own discretion. Five years later, this was overturned.^[2]

There is a George Clyde Nowlan fonds at Library and Archives Canada.^[3]

Personal life

His son Pat Nowlan later became a Progressive Conservative (and later Independent Progressive Conservative) MP in Nowlan's riding of Kings County.