List of the first openly LGBT holders of political offices in Canada

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The following is a list of the first openly LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender) holders of elected or appointed political office in Canada.

Contents

LGBT people have served at all three main levels of political office in Canada: municipal, provincial and federal. As of 2022, every Canadian province and territory has been represented by at least one out LGBTQ officeholder.

In addition to the milestones noted below, Canada has also had a number of prominent politicians who were not out as LGBT during their careers in politics, either coming out after they retired or being officially outed only in posthumous biographical sources, as well as openly LGBT politicians whose election or appointment to office was not a historically significant first as other LGBT people had already held the same office before them. For a more thorough list of Canadian LGBTQ politicians regardless of whether they represented historic firsts or not, see also List of LGBT politicians in Canada.

First overall

Federal

Parliament

At least two federal MPs who predated Robinson, Heward Grafftey and Charles Lapointe, and one who was first elected alongside him in 1979, Ian Waddell, are known to have come out as gay or bisexual after their retirement from politics. [16] [17] [18]

By provincial delegation

As of 2015, seven of Canada's ten provinces have elected at least one LGBT MP to the House of Commons or had an LGBT senator appointed from their province.

Cabinet

Parties

Provincial and territorial

To date, only New Brunswick has never had a person serve in its provincial legislature who was out as gay during their term in office, although Richard Hatfield was outed as gay after his death.

The provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Quebec and the territory of Yukon have had more than one LGBT member, and all except Nova Scotia have had both gay men and lesbian women serve in the legislatures; Nova Scotia to date has only elected LGBTQ women, with no out gay men yet serving in the legislature. The other provinces and territories which have had out LGBT legislators have had only one each to date. Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Yukon have had elected MLAs who identified as non-binary.

Some figures, including Ian Scott, Keith Norton, Phil Gillies and Dominic Agostino in Ontario, Claude Charron and Guy Joron in Quebec and Andrew Thomson in Saskatchewan, predated the firsts listed here but were not out to the general public during their time in politics.

To date, most LGBT people who have served in provincial or territorial legislatures have represented urban districts in larger cities, while very few have ever served in a purely rural district. [4]

Municipal

Overall firsts

Mayors

  • Mayor of any municipality: Maurice Richard served as mayor of Bécancour, Quebec from 1975 to 1985. Contemporary biographical sources indicate that he came out as gay sometime during his mayoralty, but are not clear about when; it is known, however, that he was out as gay by the time of his campaign for election to the National Assembly of Quebec in 1985. [4] After serving in the provincial legislature from 1985 to 1994 as its first openly LGBT member, he was reelected to another stint as mayor of Bécancour in 1995.
  • Mayor of a major city: Glen Murray (Winnipeg) – 1998 (credited as first openly gay major of a major city in North America)
  • Transgender mayor: Julie Lemieux was elected mayor of Très-Saint-Rédempteur in the 2017 municipal election.

One mayor, Charlotte Whitton in Ottawa (1951–56, 1961–64), has been the subject of unresolved debate about her sexual orientation. Whitton spent much of her adult life in a Boston marriage-style living arrangement with another woman, Margaret Grier; in 1999, 24 years after Whitton's death, the National Archives of Canada publicly released many intimate personal letters between Whitton and Grier. The release of these papers sparked much debate in the Canadian media about whether Whitton and Grier's relationship could be characterized as lesbian, or merely as an emotionally intimate friendship between two unmarried women. [34] Whitton never publicly identified herself as lesbian during her lifetime, and thus could not be considered Canada's first out LGBT mayor regardless of the status of her relationship with Grier.

City councillors

  • First city councillor: At the last caretaker meeting of Tecumseh, Ontario's municipal council following the 1980 municipal elections, outgoing councillor and unsuccessful mayoral candidate Cameron Frye acknowledged that he was gay. [35] The campaign had been marked by rumours about Frye's sexuality, including the distribution of hate literature claiming that Frye would promote a "gay lifestyle" as mayor and would lead the town into "moral decay", [36] although Frye refused to confirm or deny the claims about his sexuality during the campaign. [37] Frye was first elected to the municipal council in 1972. [37]
  • First city councillor already out at first election: Raymond Blain (Montreal), 1986

School Board Trustee

  • First trans school board trustee: Lyra Evans [38] was elected in October 2018.

By province

Alberta

British Columbia

Manitoba

New Brunswick

  • Mayor of Caraquet: Kevin Haché – 2012 [49]
  • Municipal Councillor in Quispamsis: Noah Donovan — 2021.

Newfoundland and Labrador

  • Deputy mayor in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland and Labrador: Sonia Williams – 2013
  • Municipal councillor in Wabana, Bell Island: Donovan Taplin – 2013. [50]
  • Transgender municipal councillor: Charlotte Gauthier, Gillams – 2020 [51]

Nova Scotia

  • City councillor in Halifax: Krista Snow – 2003 [52]
  • Municipal Councillor in Region of Queens: Brian Fralic – 2012 [53]
  • Mayor of Cape Breton Regional Municipality: Cecil Clarke – elected 2012 [54] [Came out: 2018]

Ontario

  • Brant: David Bailey – mayor, elected 2018 [55]
  • Barrie: Keenan Aylwin – city councillor, elected 2018 [56]
  • Fort Frances: Douglas Judson – town councillor, elected 2018
  • Cochrane: Devon Prevost – town councillor, elected 2014
  • Goderich: Kevin Morrison – mayor, elected 2014 [57]
  • Hamilton: Aidan Johnson – city councillor, elected 2014 [58]
  • North Dundas: Eric Duncan – mayor; elected 2010, came out 2017 [59]
  • Ottawa:
  • Tillsonburg: Mark Renaud – city councillor, elected 2003
  • Toronto:

Quebec

Saskatchewan

  • City councillor in Prince Albert:
    • Male: Evert Botha – 2016 [67]
  • City councillor in Saskatoon:
    • Male: Darren Hill – 2006 [68]
    • Female: Lenore Swystun – 2000 [68]
  • Mayor of La Ronge: Colin Ratushniak – 2020 [69]
  • Town Councillor in Biggar: Dakota Ekman – 2020


See also

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