Early Life and Career
Gary Doer was born to a middle class family in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His background is German and Welsh. He graduated from St. Paul's High School and went on to study political science and sociology at the University of Manitoba for one year, but left to become a corrections officer at the Vaughan Street Detention Centre. He later rose to become deputy superintendent of the Manitoba Youth Centre. Doer's work environment was not always safe: he once had to deal with a hostage taking situation, and was attacked with a baseball bat on another occasion.
Doer became president of the Manitoba Government Employees' Association in 1979, and served in this capacity until 1986. He also held prominent positions with the Manitoba Federation of Labour and the National Union of Public and General Employees, served as a director of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and became a governor of the University of Manitoba. In 1983, he negotiated an agreement with the provincial government of Howard Pawley in which civil servants agreed to delay a wage increase in return for a guarantee of no layoffs or wage rollbacks. The following year, he openly criticized Dennis McDermott's leadership of the Canadian Labour Congress.
Doer first joined the New Democratic Party in the 1970s, and worked for the party in the 1973 provincial election. He discontinued his membership in 1975 to preserve the neutrality of his union, and was later courted by both the New Democrats and Progressive Conservatives to run for public office. He rejoined the NDP in 1986, and was a candidate in that year's provincial election.
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