Otto Jelinek

The Honourable Otto Jelinek PC
Jelinek in 2014
Minister of National Revenue
In office January 30, 1989 – June 24, 1993
Prime Minister	Brian Mulroney
Preceded by	Elmer MacKay
Succeeded by	Garth Turner
Member of Parliament for Oakville—Milton (Halton; 1979–1988) (High Park—Humber Valley; 1972–1979)
In office October 30, 1972 – October 25, 1993
Preceded by	Riding established
Succeeded by	Bonnie Brown
Personal details
Born	Otakar Jelínek (1940-05-20) May 20, 1940 Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Political party	Progressive Conservative
Figure skating career
Skating club	Oakville Skating Club
Retired	1962
Medal record Figure skating – Pairs Representing Canada World Championships 1962 Prague Pairs 1960 Vancouver Pairs 1958 Paris Pairs 1957 Colorado Springs Pairs North American Championships 1961 Philadelphia Pairs 1957 Rochester Pairs

Jelinek at the 1983 Progressive Conservative leadership convention

Otto John Jelinek PC (Czech: Otakar Jelínek; born May 20, 1940) is a businessman, former figure skater, and Canadian politician. Jelinek's family fled to Switzerland, then to Canada from Czechoslovakia in 1948, following the Communist coup d'état when communists nationalized his father's cork and aluminium caps factory. Jelinek was appointed as ambassador of Canada to the Czech Republic in August 2013.

Figure skating career

International
Event	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959	1960	1961	1962
Winter Olympic Games						4th
World Championships			3rd	3rd	4th	2nd		1st
North American Championships			2nd				1st
National
Canadian Championships	1st J.	2nd	2nd	2nd		2nd	1st	1st

• J = Junior level

Jelinek competed as a pair skater with his sister, Maria. They are the 1962 World Champions, the 1961 North American national champions, and 1961-1962 Canadian national champions. They represented Canada at the 1960 Winter Olympics, where they placed 4th.

After they won the World Championships in 1962, the Jelineks retired from competition, and toured professionally with Ice Capades. In late 1963, Jelinek became engaged to Darlene Streich, an American ice dancer who went on to win the U.S. Championships in that discipline in 1964.

The Jelineks were inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1962 and into the Skate Canada Hall of Fame in 1994.

Political career

After retiring from professional skating, Jelinek started a business, Canadian Skate Industries, to manufacture figure and hockey skates for the mass market. He also had considerable investments in real estate.

After a time in business, Otto Jelinek entered politics and was elected in the 1972 election to the House of Commons as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for High Park-Humber Valley in Metropolitan Toronto. He was re-elected in 1974. In 1979, he switched to the riding of Halton, where he ran and won in the 1979 federal election.

When the Tories formed government after the 1984 election, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed Jelinek to Cabinet as Minister of State for Fitness and Amateur Sport, and the Minister responsible for Multiculturalism.

In 1988, he was named Minister of Supply and Services, and later, Minister of National Revenue. Jelinek was returned to Parliament in the 1988 federal election in Oakville—Milton left politics after Mulroney retired and did not run in the 1993 election. In 2013, he was appointed as ambassador of Canada to the Czech Republic.

Business career

In 1994, he moved to the Czech Republic, and became chairman of the Board of Directors of Deloitte & Touche Central Europe, and chairman and managing partner of the firm in the Czech Republic, a position he held until 2006. In 2007, Jelinek assumed the role of chairman of Colliers International, CEE Region. Jelinek was also a chairman of the society Olympiad for Czech Republic, which led the activities of Prague to become the host city of the 2020 Summer Olympics.

In 2011, Jelinek became a Managing Partner with Passport Energy, a Canadian oil and gas company, with responsibility for corporate and financial affairs in Europe.

Further reading

• "Canada's Sports Hall of Fame: Otto Jelinek". Archived from the original on April 7, 2013. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Otto Jelinek". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on February 20, 2010. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
• "Skate Canada Results Book - Volume 1 - 1896 - 1973" (PDF). Skate Canada. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 22, 2010.
• "Canadian National Championships Medallists" (PDF). Skate Canada. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 20, 2009.
• "World Figure Skating Championships Results: Pairs Medalists" (PDF). International Skating Union. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 5, 2013.

External links

• Otto Jelinek – Parliament of Canada biography
• Otto Jelinek at Team Canada
• Otto Jelinek at Olympics.com