Marilyn Churley | |
---|---|
![]() Marilyn Churley (centre) with Peter Tabuns and Jack Layton at a South Asian Unity Picnic held in Taylor Creek Park, Toronto, Ontario. | |
Ontario MPP | |
In office 1999–2005 | |
Preceded by | New riding |
Succeeded by | Peter Tabuns |
Constituency | Toronto—Danforth [lower-alpha 1] |
In office 1990–1999 | |
Preceded by | David Reville |
Succeeded by | Riding abolished |
Constituency | Riverdale |
City Councillor,Ward 8 (Riverdale) | |
In office 1988–1990 | |
Preceded by | Fred Beavis |
Succeeded by | Peter Tabuns |
Personal details | |
Born | Old Perlican,Newfoundland | May 7,1948
Political party | Ontario NDP,1990-2005 Federal NDP,2005-2008 |
Spouse | Richard Barry |
Residence(s) | Toronto,Ontario,Canada |
Occupation | Justice of the Peace |
Marilyn Churley (born May 7,1948) is a former politician in Ontario,Canada. She was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 2005 who represented the downtown Toronto ridings of Riverdale and Toronto—Danforth. She served as a cabinet minister in the Bob Rae government. In opposition she served as her party's critic for the Environment,Women's Issues and Democratic Renewal. She resigned from the legislature to run for the federal New Democratic Party. Churley was her party's candidate for the riding of Beaches—East York in 2006 and 2008,but was defeated both times.
Churley was born in Old Perlican,Newfoundland in 1948. Her parents were Eddie Churley and Myrtis Emberley. Shortly after being born the family moved to Happy Valley,Labrador where her father worked as a cook at Goose Bay Air Force Base. [1] She moved to the Downtown Toronto neighbourhood of Riverdale in 1978. She has served as a director of the Co-op Housing Federation of Toronto,and was a co-founder of the Bain Avenue Day Care Centre. Among other community commitments,Churley was also a director of the Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto.
In 1968,she gave birth to a son,Billy (Bill Boertjes),whom she gave up for adoption. She later reconnected with him in 1997,as described in her 2015 book "Shameless". She also has a daughter,Astra Crosby,born in 1974. Churley's experience with adoption and the search for her son led her to advocate for adoption disclosure reform. Through the 1990s,she introduced several Private Member's Bills to facilitate the process of locating children given up for adoption. None of these passed. Subsequently,she was a strong supporter of a similar bill introduced by Sandra Pupatello. This bill later became the Adoption Information Disclosure Act. [2]
Churley was elected to the Toronto City Council in 1988. She defeated longtime alderman Fred Beavis in the downtown riding of Riverdale. [3] She was involved in a number of Toronto council initiatives,including the energy efficiency office,the "Clean Up the Don" movement (with fellow city councillors Jack Layton and Barbara Hall) and police patrols on bicycle.
Churley was elected as a New Democrat in the riding of Riverdale in the provincial election of 1990. [4] The NDP won a majority government in this election and she briefly serving as a Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of the Environment. On 18 March 1991,Churley was named Minister of Consumer and Commercial Relations after the previous minister,Peter Kormos was fired by Bob Rae for a series of political blunders. [5] [6] Churley remained in this position throughout the Rae government's mandate. In cabinet,Churley opposed attempts to reduce social assistance to single mothers,and only accepted the introduction of casino gambling with reluctance.
Toronto singer/songwriter Kurt Swinghammer wrote a song called "The Signature of Marilyn Churley",inspired by Churley's signature on an elevator license dating from her term in the Rae cabinet. [7]
Rae's government lost the provincial election of 1995,and Churley was one of seventeen NDP members to retain a seat in the legislature. [8] In opposition,she worked to force the government of Mike Harris to keep the Riverdale Hospital open,stopped the closure of 11 schools,and forced the government to cap tax increases for small business. [9] [10] She also served as Deputy Speaker of the legislature from October 1997 to October 1998. [11]
In the provincial election of 1999,she was re-elected in the redistributed riding of Broadview—Greenwood. [12] Churley became deputy leader of the NDP in 2001,following the retirement of Frances Lankin from the legislature. [13] In the by-election to replace Lankin,the Liberals nominated Greenpeace co-founder and popular television personality Bob Hunter to run for them against former East York mayor Michael Prue for the NDP. During the race,Churley denounced Hunter for having written a novel with first-person accounts of encounters with child prostitutes in Bangkok. The Toronto Sun quoted Ms. Churley as saying:"It says something about Bob Hunter's character he could write such nasty,disgusting stuff about young girls in Thailand." Hunter claimed that the story was written as satire,and sued both Churley and Prue for slander. The suit was withdrawn after the by-election,which Prue won. [14]
Churley was easily re-elected for a fourth term in 2003. [15] After the election,when the NDP lost official party status in the Legislature,Churley threatened to legally change her surname to "Churley-NDP" so that the Speaker would be forced to say NDP when recognizing her in the House. [lower-alpha 2] A compromise was later reached which made this change unnecessary,and the party regained official status when Andrea Horwath won a 2004 by-election. [16]
Churley was a prominent supporter of Jack Layton in his bid to become leader of the federal New Democratic Party in 2002. This position put her at odds with party leader Howard Hampton,who supported Bill Blaikie.
In May 2005,Churley announced that once a federal election was called she would resign her Toronto—Danforth seat at the provincial legislature and run for a seat in the House of Commons of Canada. Since Toronto-Danforth is Layton's seat in the federal parliament,Churley sought to represent the neighbouring riding of Beaches—East York. However,Churley could not overcome accusations of being a parachute candidate,despite living only a few miles away from the Beaches—East York riding,and was defeated in the January 23,2006 election by incumbent Liberal Maria Minna in a hard fought contest. [17]
On February 9,2007,at a fundraiser in Toronto,Churley clarified that she would be seeking the nomination in Beaches—East York for a potential federal election in 2007. Two months later,Churley was renominated as the NDP candidate in that riding. She was again defeated by Maria Minna in the 2008 election. [18]
2008 Canadian federal election : Beaches—East York | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
Liberal | Maria Minna | 18,967 | 40.97 | +0.59 | $76,404 | |||
New Democratic | Marilyn Churley | 14,875 | 32.13 | -2.83 | $75,350 | |||
Conservative | Caroline Alleslev | 7,907 | 17.08 | -0.96 | $21,853 | |||
Green | Zoran Markovski | 4,389 | 9.48 | +3.42 | $22,434 | |||
Marxist–Leninist | Roger Carter | 155 | 0.33 | +0.16 | ||||
Total valid votes/expense limit | 46,293 | 100.00 | $82,179 | |||||
Total rejected ballots | 172 | 0.37 | +0.04 | |||||
Turnout | 46,465 | 62.93 | -7.08 | |||||
Liberal hold | Swing | +1.71 |
2006 Canadian federal election : Beaches—East York | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | Expenditures | ||||
Liberal | Maria Minna | 20,678 | 40.39 | $73,454.03 | ||||
New Democratic | Marilyn Churley | 17,900 | 34.96 | $74,996.37 | ||||
Conservative | Peter Conroy | 9,238 | 18.04 | $74,667.09 | ||||
Green | Jim Harris | 3,106 | 6.07 | $9,644.25 | ||||
Progressive Canadian | Jim Love | 183 | 0.36 | $244.26 | ||||
Marxist–Leninist | Roger Carter | 91 | 0.18 | |||||
Total valid votes | 51,196 | 100.00 | ||||||
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | 168 | |||||||
Turnout | 51,364 | 70.51 | ||||||
Electors on the lists | 72,844 | |||||||
Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada. |
Churley is a regular guest on The Michael Coren Show , a current events television program on CTS. She was appointed a justice of the peace on October 14, 2009. [19]
In 2015, she published her memoirs, entitled Shameless: The Fight for Adoption Disclosure and the Search for My Son which highlights the birth of her son and giving him up for adoption and her subsequent fight to become reunited with him. [20]
Howard George Hampton is a politician who was a member of Provincial Parliament for the province of Ontario. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Canada, from 1987 to 1999 in the electoral district of Rainy River, and from 1999 to 2011 in the redistributed electoral district of Kenora—Rainy River. A member of the Ontario New Democratic Party, he was also the party's leader from 1996 to 2009. Hampton retired from the legislature at the 2011 Ontario provincial election and subsequently joined Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP as a member of the law firm's corporate social responsibility and aboriginal affairs groups.
Shelley Dawn Marie Martel is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1987 to 2007. She represented the ridings of Sudbury East and Nickel Belt. She was a cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae.
The Ontario New Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. The party currently forms the Official Opposition in Ontario following the 2018 general election. It is a provincial section of the federal New Democratic Party. It was formed in October 1961 from the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL).
Leslieville is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated east of the Don River. It is bounded by the Canadian National railway line and Gerrard Street to the north, McGee Street to the west, Eastern Avenue to south, and Coxwell Avenue to the east.
Maria Minna is a former Canadian politician who represented the Toronto riding of Beaches—East York in the House of Commons as a member of the Liberal Party from 1993 to 2011.
David Christopherson is a Canadian politician. From 2004 until 2019, he represented the riding of Hamilton Centre in the House of Commons of Canada. He previously served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 2003, and was a cabinet minister in the provincial government of Bob Rae. Christopherson is a member of the New Democratic Party.
Peter Charles Tabuns is a Canadian politician who has served as the interim leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party and the leader of the Opposition since June 28, 2022. He is a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, first elected in a 2006 by-election to represent the riding of Toronto—Danforth.
Michael David Prue is a politician in Ontario, Canada. Prue was mayor of East York, Ontario from 1993 to 1997 and subsequently represented the riding of Beaches—East York in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2001 to 2014 as member of the New Democratic Party (NDP)'s Queen's Park caucus. He was a candidate in the 2009 Ontario NDP leadership election, finishing in fourth place. In 2018, he was elected to the town council of Amherstburg, Ontario where he now lives.
Frances Lankin,, is a Canadian senator, former president and CEO of United Way Toronto, and a former Ontario MPP and cabinet minister in the NDP government of Bob Rae between 1990 and 1995. From 2010 to 2012, she co-chaired a government commission review of social assistance in Ontario. From 2009 to 2016, she was a member of the Security Intelligence Review Committee.
James Alexander Renwick was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1964 to 1984 who represented the downtown Toronto riding of Riverdale. He served as president of the Federal New Democratic Party from 1967 to 1969. He died while still in office.
Robert Warren (Bob) Mackenzie was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1975 to 1995, and a prominent cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae.
Evelyn Adelaide Gigantes is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. She served as a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario on three occasions between 1975 and 1995, and was a prominent cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae.
David William Warner is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario on three separate occasions between 1975 and 1995, and served as Speaker of the Assembly during Bob Rae's administration.
Marion Helen Bryden was a politician in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1975 to 1990. Prior to becoming a politician, she was actively involved in the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and helped found the Ontario New Democratic Party in 1961. She died in Toronto in February 2013 aged 94.
David R. Reville is a former politician in Ontario, Canada, and an activist and educator active in Mad Pride, mad studies, and disability studies. Reville was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1985 to 1990 who represented the downtown Toronto riding of Riverdale. Between 1990 and 1995 he was an advisor to the government of Bob Rae.
Margaret Mary Burgoyne-Howse Scrivener was a politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a Progressive Conservative Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1971 to 1985 who represented the downtown Toronto riding of St. David. She was the second woman in Canada to hold a cabinet position, serving as a minister in the government of Bill Davis.
Riverdale was a provincial riding in Ontario, Canada that existed from 1914 to 1999. It occupied an area east of the Don River from the city limits just north of Danforth Avenue south to Lake Ontario. It was named after the neighbourhood of Riverdale. In 1999 a major reduction in Ontario seats resulted in Riverdale being merged with part of East York into a larger riding called Broadview-Greenwood.
The 2009 Ontario New Democratic Party leadership election was held in Hamilton, from March 6 to 8, 2009 to elect a successor to Howard Hampton as leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP). On June 15, 2008, Hampton informed the party's provincial council that he would not stand for re-election as leader at the next party convention in a year's time. While a leadership vote was held at each biennial convention of the Ontario NDP until and including the last regular convention in 2007, there is normally not a contested vote unless there is a vacancy, therefore, the 2009 vote was the party's first leadership convention since Hampton was elected in 1996 to succeed Bob Rae.
Margaret Renwick, was a politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1967 to 1971 who represented the riding of Scarborough Centre.
Toronto—Danforth is a provincial electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario since 1999. It lies to the east of Downtown Toronto.