Winston Backus


Winston Osler Backus was a Canadian politician. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1971 to 1979, and he served as Minister of Public Works in the cabinet of Premier Peter Lougheed from 1971 to 1975. The son of Percy Lavern and Verna Henrietta Backus, he was born in Eckville, Alberta in 1920. He died in June 2020 at the age of 99.

Political career

Backus ran for a seat to the Alberta Legislature in the 1971 Alberta general election. He defeated Social Credit candidate William Bowes by a few hundred votes in the electoral district of Grande Prairie to pick up the district for the Progressive Conservatives. After the election Premier Peter Lougheed appointed Backus Minister of Public Works in his first cabinet. In the 1975 general election he was returned to office with a landslide victory over three other candidates. Backus was left out of cabinet after the 1975 election. He served out the rest of his term as a private member and retired at dissolution of the assembly in 1979.