Article

Sinclair McKnight Stevens

Published Online February 13, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Sinclair McKnight Stevens, politician (b in Esquesing Twp, near Milton, Ont 11 Feb 1927). A graduate of Western and Osgoode Law School, Stevens was called to the Ontario Bar in 1955. He practised law and established his own business before being elected a Conservative MP in the 1972 election.

Stevens, Sinclair McKnight

Sinclair McKnight Stevens, politician (b in Esquesing Twp, near Milton, Ont 11 Feb 1927). A graduate of Western and Osgoode Law School, Stevens was called to the Ontario Bar in 1955. He practised law and established his own business before being elected a Conservative MP in the 1972 election. He ran for the leadership of the PC Party in 1976, finishing seventh on the first ballot and throwing his support to the eventual winner, Joe CLARK.

Stevens was a highly visible and somewhat controversial (in part because of his advocacy of big cuts in the public service) president of the Treasury Board in the Clark government 1979-80. A believer in free enterprise, a strong defence and closer ties with the US, he was a prominent supporter of Brian MULRONEY for the Conservative leadership in 1983.

Stevens was appointed minister of regional industrial expansion and chairman of the committee on economic and regional development in the Mulroney government in 1984. Stevens resigned from Cabinet in 1986 over alleged conflict-of-interest violations, which were investigated by a commission of enquiry. In Dec 1987 the commission ruled that Stevens had violated conflict-of-interest guidelines on 14 occasions. After returning to the private practice of law, Stevens made a brief, unsuccessful bid to regain his riding nomination in 1988. To a varied career that has included being a Toronto Star reporter, real estate developer, cattle rancher and financier, in 1989 he added publisher of The Planet Today. In 1993 he was named chairman of York Centre Corp.