Walter Edward Harris

Who was Walter Edward Harris?

Walter Edward Harris, PC QC was a Canadian politician and lawyer.

Harris was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons as the Liberal Member of Parliament for the Ontario riding of Grey-Bruce in the 1940 election defeating Agnes MacPhail. Despite being a newly elected MP, he enlisted in the military and served for four years, seeing action in France during World War II.

He served as parliamentary secretary to Louis St. Laurent when he was Secretary of State for External Affairs in the Mackenzie King cabinet. He continued as parliamentary secretary to St. Laurent when he became Prime Minister of Canada in 1948 until 1950 when St. Laurent brought Harris into the Canadian Cabinet.

Harris served as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration until 1954 when he was promoted to Minister of Finance. He was Finance Minister during a period of great economic growth. During his term of office, he introduced the regulations permitting "Registered Retirement Savings Plans", which have become a staple of the financial planning of millions of Canadians.

Before his 1956 budget speech, a journalist from the Montreal Gazette played a joke on a colleague from La Presse by pretending that he had received an advance copy of the budget by mistake. Harris was informed of this, and began to draft a letter of resignation until being informed that the whole story was a prank.