Honorific-Prefix: | The Honourable |
Robert Muir | |
Birth Date: | 10 November 1919 |
Birth Place: | Edinburgh, Scotland |
Death Place: | Coxheath, Nova Scotia, Canada |
Residence: | Coxheath, Nova Scotia |
Office: | Member of Parliament |
Predecessor: | William Murdoch Buchanan – Liberal |
Successor: | Electoral district abolished |
Constituency: | Cape Breton North and Victoria |
Term Start: | 10 June 1957 |
Term End: | 24 June 1968 |
Office2: | Member of Parliament |
Constituency2: | Cape Breton—The Sydneys |
Term Start2: | 25 June 1968 |
Term End2: | 26 March 1979 |
Predecessor2: | Electoral district established |
Successor2: | Russell MacLellan – Liberal |
Office3: | Senator for Nova Scotia |
Constituency3: | Cape Breton—The Sydneys |
Term Start3: | 28 March 1979 |
Term End3: | 10 November 1994 |
Profession: | Miner, businessman, salesman |
Party: | Progressive Conservative |
Robert Muir (10 November 1919 – 31 August 2011) was a Canadian Member of Parliament, first in the House of Commons and later in the Senate. Muir sat in both chambers as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He was born in Scotland and raised on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Before he became a politician, he was also a miner, a union official, a salesman and a businessman during his career. He died at his home in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in 2011.
Muir was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 10 November 1919.[1] After his father died in 1920, he and his mother immigrated to Canada.[2] After leaving school in grade 8, he worked in the coal mines until injuries ended his ability to do so.[2] Before he was injured for the final time, he was elected as the secretary of his United Mine Workers of America (UMW) local.[2] After recuperating from his injuries, he worked in insurance for London Life until he was elected to parliament.[1] He later served as chair of the Miners' Hospital in Cape Breton.[3]
Muir began politics as a member of the Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia municipal council, where he served from 1948 to 1958.[4] He entered federal politics in the 1957 Canadian general election, winning the Cape Breton North and Victoria electoral district in Nova Scotia.[2] His old riding was abolished after the 1966 electoral district redistribution.[4] Muir then ran in the newly created Cape Breton—The Sydneys electoral district in the 1968 Canadian general election and won the seat.[1] Muir won election eight consecutive times, stepping down in 1979 after having served in the 30th Canadian Parliament.[4] [5]
On 28 March 1979, two-days after an election call, Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau appointed Muir to the Senate.[6] Muir sat in the self-designated Senate division of Cape Breton-The Sydneys.[4] Muir retired from the Senate on 10 November 1994.[4] He died at home, in Coxheath, Nova Scotia on 31 August 2011, aged 91, from respiratory failure.[2] [7]