George Ernest Jackson
Jackson was born in Toronto but moved to London, Ontario when he was seven. His father was a travelling salesman. He left high school in the middle of grade 13 to join the The Royal Canadian Regiment, serving with them during World War II in England, Sicily and Italy, and rising to the rank of captain. Disagreeing with the Liberal Party of Canada's position on conscription, he joined the Progressive Conservatives after the war and served as a backroom strategist for Harry Oliver White in Middlesex East in the 1949 Canadian federal election.