Harry Enns, a former rancher and Manitoba’s agriculture minister in Gary Filmon’s administration during the 1990s, died Thursday at age 78.
Enns, a provincial politician for 37 years, represented the Lakeside riding north of Winnipeg in the province’s Interlake region, including the communities of Teulon and Stonewall.
He first came to the legislature in what was then the Rockwood-Iberville constituency in 1966, then ran in Lakeside in the following nine general elections.
Agriculture, briefly, was Enns’ first portfolio, in the cabinet of Tory premier Walter Weir, where Enns handled the ag file from July 1967 to September 1968.
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He moved through several cabinet posts during Tory administrations in the following years, which included three separate stints as the province’s natural resources minister (1968-69, 1981, 1989-93).
Enns returned to agriculture in September 1993 and remained in that post until the Filmon government’s defeat in September 1999.
Among other activities Enns worked to co-ordinate aid for farms following the province’s landmark “flood of the century” in 1997, and to wind down single-desk marketing for Manitoba hogs.
Enns kept his seat in the 1999 election and remained in the Tory caucus but opted not to run in the next election in 2003. Lakeside’s voters picked his successor as a candidate, Ralph Eichler, as their next MLA.
“Harry was a good-natured, passionate, down-to-earth person who lived his life to the fullest,” current provincial Tory leader Hugh McFadyen said in a statement Friday.
“Whether he was in the legislature or in his community, he was committed to giving nothing less than his best effort and working hard for the province of Manitoba.”
Enns, McFadyen said, “was fondly referred to as the ‘dean’ of the legislature and he served the constituents of Lakeside for 40 years. His passing is a loss that will be deeply felt throughout the province.”
Details weren’t yet available Friday regarding the cause of Enns’ death, nor for a funeral service or memorial.
