Alexander Turk

Who was Alexander Turk?

Alexander Turk was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as a Liberal-Progressive from 1953 to 1958.

Born in Larne, Northern Ireland, the son of Nathaniel Turk and Mary O'Lynn, Turk came to Canada with his family in 1910, and was educated at Lord Selkirk School. In 1931, he married Annie Owens. He was a wrestling promoter and president of the Giants Baseball Club, and was known in politics as a charismatic showman. Some credit him with introducing modern professional wrestling to Manitoba in 1946 with his company, the NWA-affiliated Alex Turk Promotions. In later years, he would promote Verne Gagne, Pat O'Connor, Bruno Sammartino, Haystacks Calhoun, Lou Thesz and others in the region. He was eventually pushed out of business by competition from the American Wrestling Association.

Turk's election to the Manitoba legislature was somewhat unexpected. In the 1953 election, he ran as a candidate of the Liberal-Progressive Party in Winnipeg North, a constituency dominated by the socialist Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and the communist Labour Progressive Party.