Herbert Wright (politician)

Herbert Henry Wright (October 2, 1880[1]—September 21, 1944[2]) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1936 to 1941.[1]

Wright was born in Eugenia Falls, Ontario,[2] and was educated in Emerson, Manitoba and at Wesley College in Winnipeg. He worked as a customs broker. Wright also saw action in World War I, serving with the 29th Battalion of the C.E.F. from 1914 to 1919 as a machine-gunner.[2]

He first ran for the Manitoba legislature in the 1927 provincial election as a Liberal candidate in Emerson. He finished second to Progressive candidate Robert Curran, losing by 139 votes.

Wright later aligned himself with a group of Liberals who opposed the party's 1932 alliance (and subsequent merger) with the Progressives. He campaigned in the 1936 provincial election as a Liberal Independent, and defeated Curran[1] by twenty votes. Only one other Liberal Independent was elected, and Wright served on the opposition benches for the next four years.

In 1940, Wright endorsed the all-party coalition government created by Liberal-Progressive Premier John Bracken. He campaigned for re-election in the 1941 election as an official Liberal-Progressive candidate, but lost to pro-coalition independent John Solomon[1] by 701 votes.

Wright died in the Winnipeg General Hospital at the age of 63.[2]