{{Short description|Canadian politician (1937–2012)}} {{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder | image = | honorific_prefix = | name = George Minaker | honorific_suffix = | riding1 = Winnipeg—St. James | parliament1 = Canadian | term_start1 = 1984 | term_end1 = 1988 | predecessor1 = | successor1 = John Harvard | office2 = Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for St. James | term_start2 = 1973 | term_end2 = 1981 | predecessor2 = | successor2 = | birth_date = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1937|9|17}} | birth_place = Morris, Manitoba, Canada | death_date = {{Death date and age|2012|4|30|1937|9|17}} | death_place = Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | spouse = | party = Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba, Progressive Conservative Party of Canada | profession = engineer }} '''Clement George Minaker''' (September 17, 1937 – April 30, 2012) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1973 to 1981, and served in the cabinet of Premier Sterling Lyon. Subsequently, he was a Progressive Conservative member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1984 to 1988.<ref name="parlbio">{{Canadian Parliament links|ID=5857|nolist=yes}}</ref>
Educated at the University of Manitoba, Minaker worked as a professional engineer after graduation.<ref name="obit"/> He was elected as an alderman in St. James in 1966, and was re-elected two years later for the new city of St. James–Assiniboia. In 1969, he was chosen as chair of the city's property committee.<ref>''Winnipeg Free Press'', 8 January 1969, p. 12.</ref> He was elected as a councillor in the City of Winnipeg in 1971,<ref name="parlbio"/> following the decision of Edward Schreyer's NDP government to amalgamate the city.
The amalgamation was unpopular with many St. James residents, and Minaker successfully used the issue to win election to the Manitoba Legislature in the riding of the same name, defeating NDP incumbent Al Mackling in the provincial election of 1973 by 374 votes. He was re-elected by a greater margin (besting Curtis Nordman of the NDP by 2346 votes) in the 1977 election,<ref name="votes"/> in which the Tories under Sterling Lyon won a majority government. Minaker entered cabinet on November 15, 1979 as Minister of Community Services and Corrections.<ref name="parlbio"/> The NDP replaced the PCs' majority with one of their own in 1981, and Minaker lost his own riding to Al Mackling by 779 votes.<ref name="votes">{{cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/manitobavotes2007/riding/043 |title=St. James |work=Manitoba Votes 2007 |publisher=CBC News |accessdate=2014-01-16}}</ref>
He then turned to federal politics, and won the riding of Winnipeg—St. James for the federal Progressive Conservatives in the 1984 Canadian federal election. He defeated the second-place candidate, Lissa Donner of the New Democratic Party, by 2680 votes. He was not appointed to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's cabinet, and lost to Liberal challenger John Harvard in 1988 by 1702 votes after representing the district for the 33rd Canadian Parliament.<ref name="parlbio"/> He did not return to politics after this time.
After leaving politics, Minaker worked for the National Transportation Agency in Ottawa. He died in Ottawa in 2012 at the age of 74.<ref name="obit">{{cite news |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ottawacitizen/obituary.aspx?pid=157416063 |title=George Minaker |newspaper=Ottawa Citizen |date=May 2, 2012 |accessdate=2014-01-16}}</ref>
==References== <references/>
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minaker, Clement George}} Category:1937 births Category:2012 deaths Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Manitoba Category:Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs Category:People from Morris, Manitoba Category:Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba MLAs Category:Winnipeg city councillors Category:20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada Category:20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba