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John Chataway

Canadian politician (1947–2004)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ2578505 ↗
Source-derived summary

John Edward Chataway (3 March 1947 – 31 December 2004) was a Canadian politician and Progressive Conservative Member of the Nova Scotia Legislative Assembly for Chester-St. Margaret's from July 1999 until his death, and a cabinet minister.

Early life and education

Chataway was a graduate of Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier University). He taught school in Nova Scotia and was a long-time municipal councillor.

Political career

After his election as MLA in 1999, Chataway was named Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs, and Minister of Human Resources. Some of his constituents in Chester alleged he was a slum landlord, a charge he denied. Chataway sold his interests in the properties to take away any appearance or hint of a conflict of interest, but resigned the Housing and Municipal Affairs portfolio on 23 September, after meeting with Premier John Hamm, where both agreed that his ability to carry out his duties, specifically in that portfolio, has been eroded. He retained the Human Resources portfolio and added the Environment portfolio in a December 1999 cabinet shuffle.

Death

His health had been in decline since a brain aneurysm in February 2000. He resigned from cabinet for health reasons in January 2001, but stayed on as MLA. He suffered a stroke while visiting his sister, Joan, in Toronto in December 2004, and died a few days later.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “John Chataway” is canadian politician (1947–2004). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through John, Chataway and Canadian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1947, 2004, 1999, 2000—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1947-03-03. For this dossier, John, Chataway and Canadian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “canadian politician (1947–2004)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2578505. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1947, 2004, 1999 and 2000.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “John Chataway”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow John Chataway primary sources, John Chataway archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “John Chataway”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “John Chataway” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.