George Beatty (judge)
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William George Beatty is a judge and former politician in the Canadian province of Ontario. He currently serves on the Central East Region of the Ontario Court of Justice.
Beatty was born into an established family in Fergus, Ontario. His grandfather, also named William George Beatty, was a successful businessman who helped establish the largest manufacturer of households items in the British Commonwealth.[1]
He is the brother of Perrin Beatty, who was a high-profile cabinet minister in the government of Brian Mulroney.[2] Both brothers became involved with Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in the 1962 federal election after attending a speech by John Diefenbaker.[3]
Legal career
Beatty was appointed to the Ontario Bar in 1977 and has an extensive background in criminal and family law. He was president of the Muskoka Law Association from 1994 to 1996.[4]
Politician
Beatty had a long association with the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario prior to his appointment to the bench. He was the party's riding association president for Muskoka in the 1980s,[5] and was an ally of local MPP Frank Miller during the latter's tenure as party leader. At the party's November 1985 leadership convention, Beatty supported Alan Pope's bid to become Miller's successor.[6]
Beatty won the Progressive Conservative nomination for Muskoka–Georgian Bay in the buildup to the 1987 provincial election, defeating three other candidates in three ballots (on the final ballot, he defeated rival candidate Bruce Stanton by only one vote).[7] A newspaper account from this period describes him as a "painfully thin, soft-spoken country lawyer."[8] Although considered a high-profile candidate for the historically conservative territory, he was defeated by Liberal candidate Ken Black on election day.