Profile of Douglas Fisher on Famous Like Me

Douglas Mason (Doug) Fisher (born September 19, 1919) is a Canadian political columnist and former politician.

The dean of the Parliamentary press gallery in Ottawa, Fisher began his career as a teacher and librarian. He entered politics with his upset victory in the 1957 general election as a candidate for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). He won over Liberal Cabinet minister C.D. Howe, the "minister of everything" in the governments of William Lyon Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent.

As CCF Member of Parliament (MP) for Port Arthur, Ontario (now the community of Thunder Bay), Fisher was an active member of the House during the 1957-1958 minority government. He quickly became knowledgeable both of parliamentary rules and personalities.

Fisher was one of a handful of CCFers re-elected in the 1958 general election that returned a crushing Progressive Conservative majority government, led by John Diefenbaker. The CCF, nearly wiped out, began to debate a relaunch of the social democratic movement in Canada by formally integrating the party with the trade union movement. Fisher, along with the interim leader of the CCF, Hazen Argue, resisted the transition into what was to become the New Democratic Party, arguing against making labour too strong within the movement.

When the new party became a fait d'accompli, Fisher supported Argue in his bid to lead the NDP. Argue lost, and crossed the floor to the Liberals. Fisher remained in the party and became an NDP MP, although he increasingly found himself at odds with the rest of the NDP caucus, and saw himself on the right-wing of the party.

Economic pressures also ensued as MPs were not well-paid at the time, and Fisher needed to support a growing family. Offered by a job by Toronto Telegram publisher John Bassett, he began freelancing as a political columnist.

Finding journalism more rewarding than politics, Fisher retired from the House of Commons at the 1965 general election after eight years as an MP. He remained on Parliament Hill as a full-time parliamentary columnist. In the 1968 general election, Fisher reconciled with the NDP, and attempted a political comeback as the party's candidate in the suburban Toronto riding of York Centre, but came in second to the Liberal candidate.

When the Telegram folded in 1971, Fisher joined the upstart Toronto Sun as its Ottawa columnist. He has remained a columnist for what ultimately became the Sun chain of newspapers ever since. With almost a half-century of his life spent in and covering Parliament, Fisher is considered the most experienced political writer in Canada. His son, Matthew Fisher, is a foreign correspondent for the National Post.

External Links

• Sun Ottawa Bureau Columnist: Douglas Fisher
• Political Biography from the Library of Parliament

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