Madam Speaker, today I pay tribute to a late colleague, the Hon. Frank McGee. Through his distinguished career in public life Frank McGee helped guide Canada through the political and intellectual challenges of the late 1950s and 1960s.
Frank became involved in federal politics in 1957 when he was elected as the Conservative member of parliament for the riding of York—Scarborough. At that time the riding was predominantly rural and was the third most populous riding in the country.
Frank served as a member under the leadership of John Diefenbaker for seven years, being re-elected in 1958 and 1962. In 1963 he was made a minister without portfolio.
During his political career Frank advocated reforms in a number of legislative areas, including those affecting the role of women in Canadian society and divorce law. He was also an activist in the reform of our death penalty laws.
Frank McGee was a man whose abilities allowed him to serve in capacities going beyond those of a member of parliament. Frank easily assumed roles of leadership in his local community, nationally, and in the media. Although he would not be a member of parliament after 1963, Frank's ability to provide leadership on public interest issues continued to place him in public life.
After electoral defeat in 1963 Frank worked as a political reporter for the Toronto Star . Although he no longer sat in the House, Frank was broadcast into Canadian living rooms as the host of the CBC television program The Sixties .
Unable to stay away from politics for long, Mr. McGee ran again for his party in the general election of 1965. One of Frank's very valuable contributions to public life came in 1984 when he was appointed to the newly created Security Intelligence Review Committee which reviews the work of CSIS. Through his five years as a member of this committee Frank was one of the initiators of guidelines and procedures put in place to monitor the sometimes delicate work of our domestic security agency at the end of the cold war era.
After his term on SIRC, Frank continued to work in public life as a citizenship judge after being appointed in 1990. It was during this period that Frank and I shared views on the evolving fields of national security and the citizenship portfolio. I would also say that Frank looked pretty good in those citizenship judge robes.
I pay tribute to this exceptional figure in Canadian political and public life. As the member of parliament for the riding of York—Scarborough, Frank McGee had a grasp of the evolving Canadian urban landscape that enabled him to play a leadership role in the demographic development of the Toronto suburbs of that time.
To his family and friends, my Liberal party colleagues and I extend our condolences in this loss. In keeping with his contribution here, we thank Frank and them for what he brought to Canadians through his service to the House and beyond.