John Angus (politician)

For other people with the same name, see John Angus (disambiguation).

John Angus (born March 3, 1943, in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a businessman and former politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a city councillor in Winnipeg from 1977 to 1988, and a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1988 to 1990. He returned to the Winnipeg City Council in 1992, and continued to serve on that body until 2004.

Angus was educated at the University of Winnipeg and the Manitoba Institute of Technology. He has served as an executive member of the Winnipeg Business Development Corporation, and was for a time the vice president of Comcheq, a national Canadian company providing computerized payroll services. He now owns an international software company and a real estate firm, and holds a broker's license.

He was elected to the Winnipeg council for St. Norbert ward (at the city's southern tip) in 1977, and reached the office of deputy mayor in 1986. During his early years on the city council, he was associated with the now-defunct Independent Citizens' Election Committee, a right-wing organization which generally represented the interests of the city's developers and suburban residents. In the provincial election of 1988, he was elected to the provincial legislature for St. Norbert as a Liberal, defeating incumbent Progressive Conservative Gerry Mercier by 388 votes.

The Liberals increased their parliamentary representation from one to twenty in this election, and Angus sat as a member of the official opposition for the next two years. During his time in parliament, he argued that the Public Utilities Board of Manitoba should be granted greater review powers over Manitoba Hydro.

In the provincial election of 1990, he lost to Tory candidate Marcel Laurendeau by 117 votes, amid a general decline in support of the Liberal Party.

Angus was re-elected to the city council in 1992. He supported the gradual elimination of the city's business tax, and the immediate elimination of city taxes on arts and amusement. He entered the race for Mayor of Winnipeg in 1998, but withdrew before election day. Reg Alcock, then the federal MP for Winnipeg South, endorsed Angus in 2002.

On January 12, 2004, Angus resigned from the city's Executive Policy Committee, one of the most important bodies in the city's governing structure.

In 2008 Winnipeg named a major street in the Waverley West neighbourhood in his honour.

Election results

1988 Manitoba general election: St. Norbert
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Angus	6,073	45.91	+
	Progressive Conservative	Gerry Mercier	5,695	43.05	-
	New Democratic	Bennetta Benson	1,460	11.04	-
Total valid votes			13,228	100.00	-
Rejected ballots			36	–	–
Turnout			13,264	76.95
Eligible voters			17,237
Source: Elections Manitoba