MP
Which position did Erik Nielsen hold from Dec 1957 to Jun 1979?
Erik Nielsen 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 . Early life , family , and education . 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 . Nielsens family lived mainly in Alberta during his formative years , and he graduated from high school in Edmonton in 1942 . World War II . 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 WWII , 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 . Parliament . 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 Partys 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 territorys 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 . After the Tories were defeated in the 1980 election , he served as Opposition House Leader from 1981 until 1983 , and engineered the Bell Ringing Affair to protest the Liberal governments omnibus energy bill . The business of the House of Commons of Canada ground to a halt for three weeks because the Opposition refused to respond to the bell summoning Members of Parliament to come to the chamber to vote . Nielsen served as Leader of the Opposition in 1983 between the resignation of Joe Clark and the election of Brian Mulroney as PC leader , and continued to lead the party in the House until Mulroney won a seat in a by-election , at which point Nielsen returned to his previous position as House Leader . When Mulroney became prime minister , he made Nielsen his deputy prime minister from 1984 to 1986 , and President of the Queens Privy Council for Canada from 1984 to 1985 . Nielsen was effectively the senior Government House Leader in all but name . He also served as Minister of National Defence from 1985 to 1986 . Nielsen has been called Yukon Erik , ( a reference to wrestler Yukon Eric of the 1950s ) but he has also been called Velcro lips for a tight-lipped reticence during his time in office . The tenaciousness and aggressiveness that made Nielsen a successful Opposition MP made him a liability as a Cabinet minister as he gave the impression of being secretive and disdainful of criticism by the Opposition and the media . His habit of stonewalling questions had the effect of prolonging the shelf life of political scandals in Parliament , and thus hurt the governments reputation . This became most apparent during the Sinclair Stevens conflict-of-interest scandal , in which Mulroney was out of Parliament for two weeks while the opposition barraged Nielsen with questions . Shortly after Mulroney returned in June 1986 , he forced both Nielsen and Stevens to resign from cabinet . Years afterward , future Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps would remark that the sacking of Nielsen made Mulroney look decisive , when pointing out the importance of a deputy prime minister in protecting the prime minister from political damage during question period . Nielsen resigned his seat in Parliament in January 1987 when he was given the position of chairman of the National Transportation Agency . He withdrew from the public service in 1992 to become president of Solar Engineering , Hawaii Inc . and Solar Electric Engineering Distributors Canada . One of Nielsens brothers was actor Leslie Nielsen . The relationship formed the premise of an HBO mockumentary titled The Canadian Conspiracy , comically alleging a Canadian subversion of the United States through its media . Nielsen was also a nephew of actor Jean Hersholt . Nielsen wrote a memoir , The House Is Not a Home ( 1989 , ) , noted for its bracing directness both about his colleagues and about his own personal life . He died at his home in Kelowna , British Columbia on September 4 , 2008 , from a massive heart attack . On December 15 , the government of Yukon renamed the main airport at Whitehorse , the capital of the territory , to Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport in Nielsens memory . External links . - Leslie and Erik Nielsen laugh it up ( audio ) 1991 Peter Gzowski interview with Leslie and Erik Nielsen