Jack Horner

Who was Jack Horner?

John Henry "Jack" Horner, PC was a rancher and former Canadian politician and Cabinet minister.

Nicknamed "Cactus Jack", Horner was born in Saskatchewan, the fifth child in a family of six boys and three girls. His mother's uncle had been a prisoner of Louis Riel's provisional government. His father, Ralph Horner was a failed Conservative candidate who was appointed to the board of directors of Canadian National Railways by the government of R.B. Bennett in 1931, and then to the Canadian Senate in 1933.

Jack Horner moved to Alberta at the age of 18 to manage a ranch purchased by his father and then bought his own ranch in 1947.

He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1958 federal election from the rural central Alberta riding of Acadia, when the Progressive Conservative Party of which he was a member was swept to power with a huge majority. Horner was an avid supporter of PC leader John Diefenbaker. Also elected to the Parliament of Canada as Tories were his older brother, Hugh Horner and cousin Albert Horner. With Jack Horner's father, Ralph, still sitting as a Senator, four Horners were sitting in the two chambers of Parliament simultaneously. Another brother, Norval Horner, was elected to the House in 1972. When Acadia was abolished in 1968, the bulk of it was absorbed into the new riding of Crowfoot, and Horner ran from this riding and won.