Buzz Hargrove

Basil Eldon "Buzz" Hargrove (March 8, 1944 – June 15, 2025) was a Canadian trade union leader and onetime national president of the Canadian Auto Workers. Until his death in 2025, he served as a distinguished visiting professor at Toronto Metropolitan University's Ted Rogers School of Management and director of its Centre for Labour Management Relations. Born in Bath, New Brunswick, Hargrove first became involved in the automotive sector as a line worker for the Chrysler assembly plant in Windsor, Ontario. He succeeded Bob White as president of the CAW in 1992. On July 8, 2008, he announced his intention to retire, before he turned 65, in September 2008. The CAW national executive board and staff endorsed then CAW Local 444 president Ken Lewenza to replace Hargrove as national president, and on September 6, 2008, Lewenza was formally elected to the position at a special union convention. In 1998, Brock University honoured him with a doctorate of laws degree. He received honorary doctorates from the University of Windsor in 2003, from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2004, from the University of New Brunswick in 2008, and from Queen's University in 2009. In 2008, he was made an officer of the Order of Canada. Hargrove was seen as a proponent of social unionism, and his supporters claimed that he steered the CAW to become a more activist union. In the field of electoral politics, however, the CAW has broken from its longtime support for the left-wing New Democratic Party and instead began increasingly supporting the Liberal Party of Canada. Hargrove was married to Denise Small, a mediation officer for the Ontario Labour Relations Board