Norman Douglas (politician)
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Norman Douglas QSO |
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Douglas in 1938
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| Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Auckland Central | |
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In office 12 December 1960 – 29 November 1975 |
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| Preceded by | Bill Anderton |
| Succeeded by | Richard Prebble |
| 21st President of the Labour Party | |
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In office 1966–1970 |
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| Preceded by | Norman Kirk |
| Succeeded by | Bill Rowling |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
15 March 1910 Hikurangi, New Zealand |
| Died | 26 August 1985 (aged 75) Auckland, New Zealand |
| Political party |
Labour Democratic Labour (1940-43) |
| Spouse(s) | Dorothy Jennie Anderton; 4 children (including Roger and Malcolm Douglas) |
Norman Vazey Douglas, QSO (15 March 1910 – 26 August 1985) was a New Zealand trade unionist and left-wing politician. He joined the New Zealand Labour Party in 1932, but when John A. Lee was expelled from the party in 1940, Douglas followed to join the new Democratic Labour Party. He rejoined the Labour Party in 1952 and represented the Auckland Central electorate in Parliament from 1960 until his retirement in 1975, serving time on the Opposition front bench.
Douglas was born in Hikurangi in 1910, the son of a policeman. He lost his left arm in a duck-shooting accident in 1927. Joining the Grey Lynn branch of the Labour Party in 1932, he became a close friend of Member of Parliament (MP) John A. Lee (who lost his left arm in World War I). He became president of the branch in 1935. That same year he was elected to the Auckland City Council for Labour and served three years until Labour's defeat. He became the assistant secretary of the Auckland Coach and Car Builders' Union and the Auckland Brewers', Wine and Spirit Merchants' Employees' Union in 1936, and then secretary of both unions the following year, remaining in that post for the latter union until 1963. He was secretary of the Auckland Trades Council from 1939 to 1941 and led the Labour Party's Junior Labour League.
When Lee was expelled from the Labour Party in 1940, Douglas left also and helped him set up the Democratic Labour Party. He was a member of the party's national executive and edited John A. Lee's Weekly. He ran for Parliament in 1941 (1941 by-election in Waitemata)) and in the 1943 election (for Onehunga) but was defeated. He operated a bookselling business for about 15 years from 1944, first with Lee and then on his own after he and Lee fell out in 1954.
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