Claude WagnerPCQC (April 4, 1925 – July 11, 1979) was a Canadian judge and politician in the province of Quebec, Canada. Throughout his career, he was a Crownprosecutor, professor of criminal law and judge.
Life and career
Wagner was born in Shawinigan, Quebec, as the son of Corona (née Saint-Arnaud) and Benjamin Wagner.[2] His father, a violinist, was a immigrant from the city of Sucheva in the region of Bukovina, Romania.[3][4] His mother was French-Canadian.[5][6]
Wagner attracted support from Tories who believed that having a leader from Quebec would enable the party to break the federal Liberal Party's stranglehold on the province and from right-wing Tories attracted by his law-and-order reputation. He was hurt by revelations of a slush fund that was funded by supporters so that he would be financially solvent if he lost in 1972. Wagner led on the first three ballots of the convention, but Joe Clark won the leadership by 65 votes out of 2,309 on the fourth ballot.
In 1978, he was nominated to the Senate of Canada by Prime MinisterPierre Trudeau; he accepted the appointment and sat as a Progressive Conservative.[8] One reason for his departure from the House of Commons was that he could not get along well with Clark.[9] He died of cancer the next year at the age of 54, during Clark's brief premiership.[10]