Otto Jelinek, Canadian figure skating world champion and Olympian, dead at 86 | CBC Sports

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Otto Jelinek, a former world-champion figure skater and federal cabinet minister, has died at the age of 86.

Jelinek was born in Prague in 1940, and his family fled Czechoslovakia's communist government, arriving in Canada in 1952.

Jelinek and his sister Maria represented Canada in paired figure skating at the 1960 Winter Olympics in California.

The pair toured with the Ice Capades entertainment show while Jelinek became a sports commentator for CTV. He also started a company manufacturing hockey and figure skates.

Jelinek described himself as politically right-of-centre, and he said he had been involved in backroom politics during the era of former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker.

When the Tories swept to power in 1984, Jelinek became minister of amateur sport, later adding multiculturalism, public works, and supply and services to his resume.

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Jelinek once remarked that he would make a poor diplomat because he speaks his mind too easily, such as in 1991 when he suggested the Tory government may have taxed Canadians too aggressively, earning him the wrath of some cabinet colleagues.

"I for one resent being referred to as a hyphenated Canadian. I believe we have to get rid of hyphenated Canadians," he told reporters in a scrum.

That year, Jelinek was shuffled out of cabinet and he said he would not seek election.

"I was set to go until I ran into these guys -- my wife and my two boys, aged 10 and five years old. And suddenly life's reality hit home," Jelinek was quoted saying in a Canadian Press report, which noted his voice was cracking, with tears welling up in his eyes.