During the summer of 1936, Minister of Pensions and National Health Charles Power seemed receptive. He told the Globe newspaper about the bill, stating that similar ideas had been floating around Parliament for years.

After contention in the “sporting press,” and a question of whether this was a federal or provincial matter, Plaxton reframed the proposal to focus primarily on physical health, as a program of the Department of Pensions and National Health.

He rose in Parliament in January 1937 to propose the revised bill, receiving much acclaim from the opposition Conservative Party. Plaxton noted that the most recent British Speech from the Throne highlighted the issue of physical fitness, and that various European countries and Japan all had similar programs.

Plaxton's concern included that amateur sports bodies weren't interacting well with each other, or with the public, and he called into question the amateur status of leagues whose ticket sales returned a substantial profit.

Among the opposition members to support the proposed bill was Gordon Graydon, a fellow rookie representing Peel:

“Today we do not seem to have the time to exercise. There is the keen competition in business and the fact that we use our cars so much. Some will almost use a car to go from [MP offices to the House of Commons, across the street.] Such practices are devastating to our individual constitutions and have an adverse effect upon our national life.”

Co-operative Commonwealth Federation leader Tommy Douglas was cool to the idea of a Sports Ministry, preferring other health programs. He noted that existing county-based health programs were “very spasmodic,” saying that neighbouring counties had completely different levels of dental health, depending on their municipal coffers. Urging the adoption of preventive medicine, he said it “is not a wasteful extravagance; it is an investment, and a good one.”

A member of the Social Credit questioned Douglas' criticism, suggesting both measures would complement each other.

But Plaxton faced a verbal beating from his own party. Once seemingly receptive to the concept, Health Minister Charles Power recalled the “physical torture” of gym class as a student, despite being an amateur hockey player, a generation before Plaxton. He also suggested that many of the European countries with athletics programs were merely training “cannon fodder,” a comment eerily foreshadowing the Second World War.

He worried about having to personally choose who Canada would send to athletic competitions.

“I would not want to be the man who had to choose the referees in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup games; I would not want to have to judge horse racing or to see that wrestling matches were not framed in advance.”

A Quebec member cited his riding's nine golf courses, and worried that as MP he would have to “put in recommendations for caretakers, for professionals, and perhaps for chambermaids,” and that the motion might lead to steps to “control beauty contests.”

On the urging of Power, Plaxton withdrew the bill.

Prime Minister John Diefenbaker created Canada's first Ministry of Amateur Sport in 1961.

After serving two years in the Royal Navy, Plaxton returned home to serve as the Commander of the HMCS Cataraqui, the navy barracks in Kingston. After a career of practicing law in Toronto and Peel, and a period curling with the Mississauga club, he died in Mississauga in 1982. He is buried at Springcreek Cemetery in Mississauga.

As Plaxton came to Peel later in life, the Region of Peel Archives at PAMA doesn’t have much on his hockey, parliamentary, or legal life in its collection. However, the Archives would love to hear from the Plaxton family, at 905-791-4055 or pamaarchives@peelregion.ca about the possibility of the Region of Peel Archives or another relevant institution preserving this legacy in law, sports, and service to country.

For more, visit the PAMA archives website.



