John Harvard

Who is John Harvard?

John Harvard, PC OM is a journalist, politician and office holder in Manitoba, Canada. He served as a federal Member of Parliament from 1988 to 2004, and was appointed the 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba just before Canada's 2004 federal election.

Harvard was a broadcast journalist from 1957 to 1988. He worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for eighteen years and was for many years the host of a popular call-in show in Winnipeg called Talk Back, on CJOB radio. Coincidentally, his predecessor as lieutenant-governor, Peter M. Liba, worked as a journalist for CBC's competitor CanWest.

Harvard was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1988 election as a Liberal, defeating incumbent Progressive Conservative George Minaker by 18,695 votes to 16,993 in the middle-class suburban riding of Winnipeg—St. James. Harvard sat as a backbench member of the parliamentary opposition from 1988 to 1993.

The Liberal Party won the 1993 federal election, and Harvard was easily re-elected in Winnipeg—St. James, defeating his nearest competitor, Reformer Peter Blumenschein, by about 13,000 votes.