Robert Gordon Robertson
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The Honourable (Robert) Gordon Robertson PC CC FRSC |
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|---|---|
| 7th Commissioner of the Northwest Territories | |
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In office November 15, 1953 – July 12, 1963 |
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| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Preceded by | Hugh Andrew Young |
| Succeeded by | Bent Gestur Sivertz |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
May 19, 1917 Davidson, Saskatchewan, Canada |
| Died | January 15, 2013 (aged 95) Ottawa, Ontario |
| Religion | United Church of Canada |
(Robert) Gordon Robertson, PC CC FRSC (May 19, 1917 – January 15, 2013) was Commissioner of the Northwest Territories from November 15, 1953 to July 12, 1963 who, having been sworn in at the age of 36, remains the youngest person to ever hold the office. He went on to become Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet, the top position in the Canadian public service.
Born in Davidson, Saskatchewan, Robertson was educated at University of Saskatchewan, Exeter College, Oxford (where he was a Rhodes Scholar) and University of Toronto. He joined the Department of External Affairs in 1941. From 1945 to 1948 he worked in the Prime Minister's Office of William Lyon Mackenzie King, and from 1948 to 1953 he was in the Privy Council Office under Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent. In 1953 he was appointed Deputy Minister of the newly formed Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources. By virtue of that position he was also Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. He remained in this combination of positions until 1963, when incoming Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson appointed him Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet, the top position in the Canadian public service. He held this position under Pearson and then under Pierre Trudeau until 1975. In that year, Trudeau appointed him Secretary to the Cabinet for Federal-Provincial Relations, to support Trudeau in his constitutional reform agenda. He remained in that position for most of the government of Joe Clark, retiring in December 1979.
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