Fonds consists of records which were created and accumulated by Alastair Gillespie during 54 years. They document his university education, his business career in Toronto for twenty years until 1968, his eleven years in Parliament as a Liberal backbencher and as a Trudeau Cabinet Minister, and then after 1979 another twenty years in business. Additionally, some personal records, mostly of his private finances, are scattered throughout the collection. Most of the records, perhaps 320 of the 440 volumes, document his political work as a Cabinet Minister from 1971 until 1979 in three scientific and economic portfolios. As the first Minister of State for Science and Technology, he established that ministry; as Minister of Industry, Trade, and Commerce, he promoted Canadian business and trade. During 1975 - 1979, he was Minister of Energy, Mines, and Resources in a period of new oil economics and new ideas about "alternate energy", resource development, the environment, and native land claims. Gillespie's post-Parliamentary records document his attempts to develop a company to extract oil from Nova Scotian coal.
Gillespie, Alastair, 1922- : Alastair William Gillespie was born in Victoria, British Columbia, 1 May 1922. He attended the University of British Columbia before serving in the Royal Canadian Navy as a pilot, 1941 to 1945. After the Second World War, Gillespie attended McGill University and then Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1949, where he obtained his Master of Arts. He taught business at the University of Toronto Business School in the early 1950s, and obtained his Masters of Commerce there in 1958. Gillespie was a founding partner in 1952 of Coffee-Mat Services Ltd. He was Vice-President and a Director of WJ Gage Ltd. from 1950 to 1963, and of Canadian Corporate Management Ltd., 1963 to 1968. He was also President and a Director of Canadian Chromalox, 1965 to 1968, and of Welmet Industries Ltd., 1964 to 1968.
Gillespie was a member of the Executive of the Liberal Party of Ontario from 1965 to 1968. He was first elected to Parliament in the general election of 25 June 1968, representing Etobicoke Centre, Ontario. He was re-elected in 1972 and in 1974, and defeated in 1979. He was Vice-Chairman of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, Trade, and Economic Affairs, 1968 to 1970, and was Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, from 1 October 1970 until 11 August 1971. Gillespie was sworn to the Privy Council 12 August 1971, and served as the first Minister of State for Science and Technology, 12 August 1971 to 26 November 1972; as Minister of Industry, Trade, and Commerce, from 27 November 1972 until 25 September 1975; and then as Minister of Energy, Mines, and Resources, 26 September 1975 until the first Trudeau Ministry resigned, 3 June 1979. He was Minister of State for Science and Technology for a second time, 24 November 1978 to 3 June 1979.
From 1979 onward, Gillespie was a business and energy consultant based in Toronto; additionally, he was Chairman and a Director of Carling O'Keefe Ltd., 1980 to 1983, a Director of Uni-Royal-Goodrich Canada Inc., 1982 to 1990, and was Chairman of the Board of National Westminister Bank of Canada, 1980 to 1995. From 1985, he was President of Scotia Synfuels Limited, which he had founded to develop Nova Scotian energy resources. Since 1996, he has been President of Creemore Springs Brewery. He has also been active in non-profit organizations, including the Canadian Institute on Public Affairs, the Canadian Opera Company, and the Champlain Society.
