Paul Dick

The Honourable Paul Wyatt Dick, PC (born October 27 1940) is a lawyer and former Canadian politician.

After studying law and working as an assistant crown attorney, Dick was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1972 general election as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Lanarkâ€"Renfrewâ€"Carleton. In 1983, he became Deputy House Leader of the parliamentary Opposition Tory party.

He was appointed a parliamentary secretary following the Tory victory in the 1984 general election under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. In 1986, Dick was promoted to Cabinet as Associate Minister of National Defence.

He was re-elected as an MP in the 1988 election for the redistributed riding of Lanark--Carleton, and was moved to the position of Minister of Supply and Services in 1989.

When Kim Campbell succeeded Mulroney as prime minister in June 1993, she retained Dick as Supply and Services minister, while adding an appointment as Minister of Public Works. However, both Dick and the Campbell government were defeated in the subsequent 1993 election, which ended his political career.

At 53 and with most of his adult life having been consumed by politics, Dick found himself out of work and with his political experience counting for little in job interviews. Bankruptcy and divorce followed. After being turned down for executive or management level positions, Dick found entry-level work at a stock brokerage firm, finding himself working alongside fresh college graduates. Dick was successful and now earns a six-figure salary. The story of Dick's life after politics is one of those profiled in the 2003 book The Dark Side: The Personal Price of a Political Life by Steve Paikin ISBN 0670043281.