His father was leader of the Economic Union Party in the 1940s and a leading opponent of the campaign for Newfoundland to join Canadian Confederation.

He was awarded the Viscount Bennett Scholarship by the Canadian Bar Association as the outstanding law student for that year.

Smallwood's authoritarian style and refusal to allow a younger generation to take power frustrated Crosbie and other young ministers, such as Clyde Wells.

However, when Crosbie, who had resigned from caucus, became the apparent front runner to succeed him as leader Smallwood decided to run for the leadership of the party.

Smallwood won the leadership race and Crosbie crossed the floor to join the opposition Progressive Conservative Party, led by Frank Moores.

[7] The Progressive Conservatives were now seen as a viable alternative to the Liberal Party, and in 1972 Crosbie helped the Tories defeat Smallwood and come to power.

[10] When Joe Clark's Progressive Conservatives formed a minority government after the 1979 general election, Crosbie was appointed Minister of Finance.

A motion of no confidence on the budget brought the Clark government down on December 13, 1979, resulting in a new election which the Tories lost.

Clark felt however that this was not a strong mandate and recommended that the party executive hold a leadership convention at the earliest possible time, in which he would be a candidate.

Less notable was the failure of the "John Crosbie blimp" to operate properly during his campaign's demonstration on the floor of the convention.

[3] Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau retired as his party's leader in 1984 and was replaced by John Turner.

[13] Crosbie was also a supporter of redress for Japanese Canadians interned during World War Two - in September 1988 the Mulroney government made its historic apology in the House of Commons and compensated each surviving internee with $18,000.

He was pro-abortion on the issue of abortion and as Minister of Justice, liberalized divorce laws,[20] and appointed a larger percentage of women to the bench than his predecessors.

He was also an early advocate of gay and lesbian rights, changing government policy to prohibit discrimination against homosexuals in hiring in the public sector, including the military and the RCMP, and in 1986 introduced amendments to the Canadian Human Rights Code to include sexual orientation as a prohibited grounds of discrimination.

[21] In the 1988 federal election when Newfoundland Conservatives opposed the candidacy of Ross Reid due to his refusal to deny rumours that he was gay, Crosbie angrily told a meeting of party workers "I don't care if he is having sexual relations with effing cats.

Crosbie was greeted by an angry throng of Newfoundlanders concerned about rumours of a proposed moratorium on the Atlantic northwest cod fishery.

[25] When Brian Mulroney announced his resignation as party leader, Crosbie did not stand as a candidate at the 1993 Progressive Conservative leadership convention but supported Jean Charest's candidacy instead.

[27] In the 2004 federal election, he publicly considered running for the Conservatives against Liberal incumbent John Efford in the Newfoundland riding of Avalon, but ultimately decided against doing so.

Ches was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador on April 28, 2018 serving until March 31, 2021.

[9][37] Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney eulogized him in glowing terms at his state funeral:[38] If a PM of Canada is lucky—and I mean really lucky—he will wind up with a John Crosbie in his cabinet.

As I sat across the cabinet table from John for nine years and watched him in action, I knew that as prime minister I had been handed a major gift.John Crosbie has received many honorary degrees for his service to Canada.