John Lawrie

John Polworth Lawrie (August 25, 1875^[1] in Edinburgh, Scotland^[2] – October 17, 1952^[3]) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1936 to 1949. Originally elected as a Conservative, he sat as a Progressive Conservative after the party changed its name.^[1]

Lawrie was educated in Edinburgh, and came to Canada in 1893. He worked as an implement dealer^[2] and insurance broker, also served as a police magistrate and commissioner. In 1907, he married May Clegg.^[3]

He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1936 provincial election, defeating incumbent Liberal-Progressive candidate John Muirhead^[1] by 82 votes in the constituency of . The Conservatives were the primary opposition party in Manitoba during this period, and Lawrie sat with his party on the opposition benches.

In 1940, the Liberal-Progressives and Conservatives joined together in a wartime coalition government. This arrangement did not prevent the parties from fielding candidates against one another in the 1941 election, however; Lawrie again faced John Muirhead,^[1] and won by only 44 votes.^[2] He served as a government backbencher for the remainder of his tenure in the legislature.

In the 1945 election, he defeated^[1] a candidate of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation.

Lawrie did not run for re-election in 1949, and died in Carberry three years later.^[3]

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