{{short description|Canadian politician}} {{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
'''John Polworth Lawrie''' (August 25, 1875<ref name="members"/> in Edinburgh, Scotland<ref name="golden"/> – October 17, 1951<ref name="mhs"/>) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1936 to 1949. Originally elected as a Conservative, he sat as a Progressive Conservative after the party changed its name.<ref name="members">{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.mb.ca/hansard/members/mla_bio_deceased.html#L0 |title=MLA Biographies - Deceased |work=Legislative Assembly of Manitoba |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330155427/http://www.gov.mb.ca/hansard/members/mla_bio_deceased.html |archivedate=2014-03-30 }}</ref>
Lawrie was educated in Edinburgh, and came to Canada in 1893. He worked as an implement dealer<ref name="golden"/> and insurance broker, also served as a police magistrate and commissioner. In 1907, he married May Clegg.<ref name="mhs"/>
He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1936 provincial election, defeating incumbent Liberal-Progressive candidate John Muirhead<ref name="members"/> by 82 votes in the constituency of Norfolk. The Conservatives were the primary opposition party in Manitoba during this period, and Lawrie sat with his party on the opposition benches.
In 1940, the Liberal-Progressives and Conservatives joined in a wartime coalition government. This arrangement did not prevent the parties from fielding candidates against one another in the 1941 election, however; Lawrie again faced John Muirhead,<ref name="members"/> and won by only 44 votes.<ref name="golden">{{cite news |url=http://manitobia.ca/content/en/newspapers/WPT/1943/03/13/articles/201.xml/iarchives |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130628051132/http://manitobia.ca/content/en/newspapers/WPT/1943/03/13/articles/201.xml/iarchives |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 28, 2013 |title=Under The Golden Boy, Manitoba’s M.L.A.s |newspaper=Winnipeg Evening Tribune |date=March 13, 1943 |page=15 |accessdate=2013-04-09 }}</ref> He served as a government backbencher for the remainder of his tenure in the legislature.
In the 1945 election, he defeated<ref name="members"/> a candidate of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation.
Lawrie did not run for re-election in 1949, and died in Carberry three years later.<ref name="mhs">{{cite web |url=https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/lawrie_jp.shtml |title=John Polworth Lawrie (1875-1951) |publisher=Manitoba Historical Society |accessdate=2013-04-09}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrie, John}} Category:1875 births Category:1951 deaths Category:Politicians from Edinburgh Category:Scottish emigrants to Canada Category:Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba MLAs Category:20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba