David Luther Burgess
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David Luther Burgess MC MBE[1] (January 28, 1891 – November 30, 1960) was a World War I flying ace who, in 1926, was the sole challenger to Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in a by-election held in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. The campaign was unsuccessful.
Biography
Born in Kleinburg, Ontario on 28 January 1898,Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Burgess moved to Saskatchewan in 1910, worked for a lumber company.[1]
World War I
He enlisted in the Saskatchewan Regiment during World War I and held the rank of lieutenant.[2]Script error: No such module "Unsubst". In 1917, he was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps as an observer/gunner with No. 25 Squadron flying the DH-4 bomber from May to October 1917. In conjunction with his pilot Captain James Fitz-Morris, the duo scored seven victories (4 destroyed, 3 'out of control').Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". and was awarded the Military Cross for "conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in aerial fighting and on photography".[3]
Mackenzie King had suffered a personal defeat in the 1925 federal election losing his riding of York North in Ontario and needed to win in a by-election in order to re-enter the House of Commons of Canada. Prince Albert Liberal MP Charles McDonald was persuaded to step aside in order to create a vacancy for King.
By-election
The Prince Albert by-election would normally have been a formality and the Conservative Party declined to enter a candidate as did the Progressives. However, an acclamation was avoided when Burgess entered the contest with the encouragement of the previous Tory candidate John Diefenbaker.
Burgess ran as an independent candidate and argued that Mackenzie King was appropriating the riding of Prince Albert and assuming the compliance of its residents. In an election address, he said:
Burgess was defeated in the February 15, 1926, by-election by a three-to-one margin.
Later career
Four years later, after the 1930 federal election defeated Mackenzie King's government and brought the Conservatives to power, Burgess moved to Ottawa to take up a position as private secretary to the new Minister of Agriculture, Robert Weir. He remained in Ottawa as a civil servant with the Department of Agriculture after the Conservatives were defeated in 1935 and retired from the position of chief of supplies of the department in 1957.[4]
In 1956, he was elected Dominion president of the Canadian Legion and served in that position for four years.[4]
Death
He was a candidate for the city of Ottawa's Board of Control when he suffered a heart attack and died five days before the election.[4] Template:1926 Canadian federal by-elections/Prince Albert (15 February)
References
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- 1891 births
- 1960 deaths
- Canadian World War I flying aces
- Canadian recipients of the Military Cross
- Saskatchewan candidates for Member of Parliament
- Independent candidates for the Canadian House of Commons
- Politicians from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
- People from Vaughan
- 20th-century Canadian politicians
- Royal Flying Corps officers
- Canadian Army officers
- British Army personnel of World War I
- Canadian military personnel of World War I
- Canadian military personnel from Ontario