Major James Coldwell - Later Life

Later Life

In 1964 he became a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, thereby allowing him to be referred to by the honorific "The Honourable" for the rest of his life. Also in 1964, he was appointed to the House of Commons Advisory Committee on Election Finances, which was chaired by Liberal Cabinet Minister, Judy LaMarsh. In 1966, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson appointed him to the Royal Commission on Security (the "Mackenzie Commission"), dealing with the RCMP and security issues that arose from the Munsinger Affair. When Douglas retired as the NDP's leader in April 1971, the party established the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation in Ottawa as its parting gift to Douglas, and to his aging friend and political mentor, Coldwell. The foundation's mandate was to be an intellectual think-tank that incubated ideas and policies for the NDP. On November 5, 1972, Coldwell was honoured by St. Francis Xavier University with a Doctorate in Laws degree (LL.D.).

On July 6, 1967, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada. He was invested into the order on November 24, 1967 for "his contribution as a Parliamentarian." It is noteworthy that his Order of Canada medal was sold at auction in 1981, the first time the Order of Canada is known to have been sold. It ended up in auction due to his will not specifying what to do with his various medals, so his son sold them to a private collector, who then put them up for auction. That same year, the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation purchased the medals back for about $10,000 so that they could be displayed in the Tommy Douglas House museum in Regina.

In his final years, his health was deteriorating. He was living alone in his home in Ottawa, with the assistance of his housekeeper, Beatrice Bramwell. He died in Ottawa's Civic Hospital after suffering two heart attacks on August 25, 1974. He had given specific orders not to perform "heroic measures" to keep him alive. He was 85 years old when he died.