James Kelleher

Who was James Kelleher?

James Francis "Jim" Kelleher, PC, QC was a Canadian politician and retired Senator.

Born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, he received a B.A. degree in 1952 from Queen's University and a LL.B. degree in 1956 from Osgoode Hall Law School. Kelleher was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1984 election as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

He was appointed Minister of International Trade in the first Cabinet of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. In 1986, he became Solicitor General of Canada as the result of a cabinet shuffle, and remained so until his defeat in the 1988 election.

On September 23, 1990, Kelleher was appointed to the Canadian Senate on Mulroney's recommendation. He retired from the upper house upon his seventy-fifth birthday, October 2, 2005, due to the Senate's mandatory retirement rules.

He died of heart problems in 2013.