Michael Wilson (politician)

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Michael Holcombe Wilson, PC OC (born November 4, 1937) is a Canadian diplomat, politician and business leader.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Wilson attended Upper Canada College, Trinity College at the University of Toronto where he joined the Kappa Alpha Society. He was a Bay Street investment executive when he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament in the 1979 general election. He served as Minister of State for International Trade in the nine-month minority government of Joe Clark.

Wilson was a candidate at the 1983 Progressive Conservative leadership convention. He tried to woo young delegates by having the rock group Spoons perform on his behalf. He dropped off after the first ballot, and urged his supporters to vote for the eventual winner, Brian Mulroney.

Mulroney appointed Wilson Minister of Finance when the party formed a government after the 1984 election.

He reformed the tax system to broaden the tax base and lower tax rates, removing many special tax provisions, and helped negotiate the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. Wilson also introduced the Goods and Services Tax in 1990, a tax which is widely credited, even by Liberals (who had promised to abolish the tax), as having helped bring the Federal government back into surplus.^{[citation needed]}

In 1991, after seven years as Minister of Finance, Wilson became Minister of Industry, Science and Technology and Minister of International Trade. In that role, he participated in negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement. Wilson was not a candidate in the 1993 election, and returned to Bay Street to head his own consulting and financial services firm. He later rejoined Royal Bank of Canada and was Chairman and CEO of RT Capital when that business was sold to UBS AG. Wilson was formerly Chairman of UBS Canada.

In recent years he has become a spokesman for a lobby group promoting Public-Private Partnerships. He was Chairman of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance. In September 2003, Wilson was installed as chancellor of Trinity College.

He is a mental health advocate, having lost a son to depression and suicide; he established the Cameron Parker Holcombe Wilson Chair in Depression Studies at the University of Toronto.

On October 30, 2003, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Wilson became the 22nd Canadian Ambassador to the United States on March 13, 2006 when U.S. President George W. Bush accepted his credentials.

[edit] External links

• Washington Diplomat Bio

• Washington Canadian Embassy's ambassador page

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