constituency death_date predecessor successor birth_place alongside party profession office birth_date term_start residence article_title term_end name
winnipeg north -lrb- multiple member constituency -rrb- january 1 , 1988 frank chester riding dissolved larne , northern ireland morris gray , john hawryluk , william kardash liberal-progressive sports owner mla march 5 , 1906 1953 winnipeg , manitoba alexander turk
 1958 alexander turk
alexander turk

alexander turk -lrb- march 5 , 1906 -- january 1 , 1988 -rrb- was a politician in manitoba , canada .
he served in the legislative assembly of manitoba as a liberal-progressive from 1953 to 1958 .
born in larne , northern ireland , the son of nathaniel turk and mary o'lynn , turk came to canada with his family in 1910 , and was educated at lord selkirk school .
in 1931 , he married annie owens .
he was a wrestling promoter and president of the giants baseball club , and was known in politics as a charismatic showman .
some credit him with introducing modern professional wrestling to manitoba in 1946 with his company , the nwa-affiliated alex turk promotions .
in later years , he would promote verne gagne , pat o'connor , bruno sammartino , haystacks calhoun , lou thesz and others in the region .
he was eventually pushed out of business by competition from the american wrestling association .
turk 's election to the manitoba legislature was somewhat unexpected .
in the 1953 election , he ran as a candidate of the liberal-progressive party in winnipeg north , a constituency dominated by the socialist cooperative commonwealth federation and the communist labour progressive party .
he finished seventh out of eleven candidates on the multi-member constituency 's first count , behind two other liberal-progressive candidates .
he did well on transfers , however , and defeated fellow liberal-progressive j.m. kozoriz for the final position .
in the legislature , he served as a backbench supporter of douglas campbell 's government .
turk was on the left-wing of the liberal-progressive party .
in 1954 , he was the only member of the government caucus to support a ccf bill calling for comprehensive health insurance .
the following year , he was the only liberal-progressive mla to endorse a bill calling for progressive prison reforms .
winnipeg 's multi-member constituencies were eliminated in the 1958 election , and turk lost to steve peters of the ccf by 856 votes in the newly created riding of elmwood .
he ran again in the 1959 election , but finished third .
after leaving provincial politics , turk was elected to the winnipeg city council .
though a member of the conservative civic election committee , he again showed himself to be a progressive representative on issues relating to workers , pensioners and the handicapped , and often voted with the ccf group .
in 1964 , he lost his seat on council to another cec candidate .
