Alfred Lewis (Lew) Parres was born 19 February 1915. He was a juvenile and junior hockey star with the Nutana Athletic Club in Saskatoon. He also excelled at track and field, winning many awards. In 1932 his brother Jim entered Geological Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan with Lew following in 1934. Lew played hockey for the Huskies and after graduation could have had a career in hockey but chose the mining business instead. Parres was a staunch Northerner. He knew the North and loved the North. His vision in proposing a new Northern Province (which he called Precambria) was to keep the wealth (especially the tremendous mineral wealth) of the North in the North working to improve the lives of Northerners. His dream was to combine Northern Manitoba and Northern Saskatchewan and a small piece of Northern Alberta into one entity. His plan was backed by the local Chamber of Commerce in the early 1950s and made headlines across western Canada.