Gordon Fines

Who was Gordon Fines?

Gordon Richard Fines was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1949 to 1953, as a member of the social-democratic Cooperative Commonwealth Federation.

Fines was the son of Richard Fines and Mabel Willcott, who had resided in Manitoba since 1876, shortly after the province's creation. He was educated in Baldur, and worked as an educator in Manitoba and Saskatchewan for eight years. He was elected to the Winnipeg school board in 1947, and to the Winnipeg city council in 1948. Fines also worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway, became active in the labour movement, and was local chair of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks Lodge 49. He returned to teaching later in life.

He was married twice: first to Santa Maria La Monica in 1942 and later to Marion Cove Morden.

He was elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1949 provincial election, in the constituency of Winnipeg Centre. During this period's Winnipeg was divided into three constituencies, each of which elected four members through a single transferable ballot. Fines finished fourth on the first count with 2,149 votes, and was declared elected to the third position on the seventh count when another CCF member was eliminated.