Fonds consists of a collection of papers which offers insight into the problems and concerns of Donald Wallace Munro's Esquimalt-Saanich riding on Vancouver Island. Although Munro served as an elected federal politician for 13 years (1972-1984), the vast majority of his papers is correspondence with his constituents. Their concerns are: Capital punishment, Pensions (both British retirement and Public Service Indexing), inhumane animal traps, and the environment. In addition to serving on many parliamentary and Caucus Committees, Munro also had keen interests in the plight of veteran's and in the Law of the Sea Conferences, all are well documented.
Munro, Donald Wallace, 1916-1998 : Don Munro, Member of Parliament, was born in Regina in 1916. He received his education in Regina (elementary school), Vancouver (secondary and university), the Sorbonne, France and Toronto (Master's degree). He taught high school in Coquitlam, B.C. (1939-40) before enlisting with the RCAF in 1940. As a navigator, he served in Newfoundland and Africa (1942-44), and as a navigational instructor (1942-45), before receiving his discharge in 1945.
He returned to University where he received his Masters in Political Science at the University of Toronto. Following graduation in 1946, he joined the Department of External Affairs and served in the following postings: Paris, 1947-49; Ankara, 1949-51; Dublin, 1954-55; Brussels, 1955-56; Beirut, 1960-63; and Laos, 1964-65. In 1967, he was appointed Ambassador to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Panama. He held this position until 1969.
He was first elected as a Progressive Conservative to the House of Commons for Esquimalt-Saanich in October 1972, and was re-elected in 1974, 1979 and 1980. He did not run in the 1984 election.
While in Parliament, he served on a number of committees, including External Affairs and Defense, (of which he was Chairman in 1979-1980), Fisheries and the Environment and the Joint Committee on the Constitution, as well as a number of inter-parliamentary Groups and Associations, such as the Canada/US Inter-Parliamentary Group, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the NATO Parliamentary Association, and the Int'l Association of French Speaking Parliamentarians. He was also on the Board of the Parliamentary Relations Secretariat and attended the Law of the Sea Conferences in Caracas, Geneva and New York.
