Gordon Taylor (politician)

Gordon Edward Taylor (July 20, 1910 – July 26, 2003) was a Canadian politician, businessman and teacher. He served as an elected official for 48 years at both the provincial and federal levels.

Taylor was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1940 provincial election representing Drumheller for Social Credit Party and continued to sit in the legislature for 39 years. He survived the 1971 defeat of the Social Credit government and remained in the legislature until 1979. Taylor was Social Credit's whip from 1943 to 1950. From 1951 to 1971, he served as Minister of Highways in the governments of Ernest Manning and Harry Strom. During his tenure, 8,401 kilometers of highways were paved, and Highway 2 between Calgary and Edmonton was planned. He was also minister of telephones from 1950 to 1959. While a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) during World War II, he also served with the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Taylor ran twice for the party leadership, coming in second to Strom in the 1968 leadership election to replace Manning and coming in third in the 1973 leadership race.

As an opposition MLA in the 1970s, Taylor broke with Social Credit over his support for the Lougheed government's plan to provide gasoline to farmers, a measure the Social Credit party opposed. Taylor also felt the Social Credit caucus was "moving to the left" and was supporting the federal Liberals. As a result, Taylor sat as an Independent Social Credit MLA supporting Peter Lougheed, and was re-elected as such in the 1975 provincial election. He supported the Lougheed government during his last term in the legislature, planned to cross the floor to join the Progressive Conservatives on the last day before the legislature was dissolved in 1979, and then run as a Progressive Conservative in the 1979 provincial election.

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