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Erik Nielsen
Summary
Erik Hersholt Nielsen (February 24, 1924 – September 4, 2008) was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as the longtime Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Yukon, and was Leader of the Opposition and the third deputy prime minister. He was the elder brother of actor Leslie Nielsen.
Nielsen was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, the eldest of three boys. His mother, Mabel Elizabeth (née Davies), was an immigrant from Wales, and his father, Ingvard Eversen Nielsen (1900-1975), was a Danish-born constable in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Nielsen's family lived mainly in Alberta during his formative years, and he graduated from high school in Edmonton in 1942.
Nielsen joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942, just after graduation, and received his training mainly in Alberta. He flew 33 missions in No. 101 Squadron RAF in World War II, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) for "courage and devotion to duty,". He earned the rank of lieutenant. He rejoined the RCAF, 1946–51, as a legal officer, while earning a law degree at Dalhousie. He established his law practice in Whitehorse, Yukon.
Nielsen was elected to parliament in late 1957 (Nielsen lost in the 1957 federal election, but the result was controverted and Nielsen won the resulting byelection) and remained an MP without interruption for 30 years. He was a backbench MP during the Diefenbaker government but became prominent during the Conservative Party's long period in Opposition during the 1960s and 1970s joining the shadow cabinet in 1964. In 1978, he ran for the leadership of the newly formed Yukon Progressive Conservative Party as it prepared for the territory's first partisan elections but was defeated by Hilda Watson by one vote.
With the 1979 federal election, the Tories formed government for the first time in over 15 years and Nielsen was appointed Minister of Public Works in the short-lived minority government of Prime Minister Joe Clark.
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