 |
Chris Lea | |
|---|---|
 Lea in 2008 | |
| Leader of the Green Party of Canada | |
| In office 1990–1996 | |
| Preceded by | Kathryn Cholette |
| Succeeded by | Wendy Priesnitz |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Green Party of Canada |
Chris Lea is a designer,politician and political activist in Canada. He was the leader of the Green Party of Canada from 1990 to 1996. Lea is notable for being the first openly gay political party leader in Canadian history. [1]
Lea is a graduate student in theory and policy studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.[ citation needed ] He was formerly a professional architect. [2] [3]
During the 1980s,he volunteered for The Body Politic ,a periodical focusing on gay issues,sitting briefly on its editorial collective,and serving on the committee that set up Xtra! ,Canada's most successful gay newspaper. Lea worked on the committee that organized the Summit Citizen's Conference,the counter-summit to the G-7 meetings taking place in Toronto in 1988. With Frank de Jong,Lea organized a successful viral campaign against McDonald's use of disposable styrofoam clamshell packing containers and as well a series of protests which stalled the expansion of nuclear power in Ontario in the early 1990s by bringing light on the massive debt that the province's nuclear programme had created.
Lea,who hails from a family of entertainers that includes the 1950s Canadian TV icon Shirley Harmer,began a side career as an opera performer in 2002,and in February 2005 undertook his first on-stage solo in a performance of Gioacchino Rossini's The Barber of Seville .
He was the director of facilities at Hart House at the University of Toronto,where as part of a team he won a Green Innovation Award in 2010,for a project to utilise electrical power generated from exercise bikes. [4] For many years he was vice-President of the Toronto Opera Repertoire,and is now President of Toronto City Opera. [5]
Lea lives in Toronto.[ citation needed ]
Lea was the leader of the Green Party of Canada from 1990 to 1996. [1] The Green Party of Canada's internal organization was very decentralized in the early 1990s,and its leadership position was seen as a nominal title. In his time as leader though,Lea worked to create a more usual party structure. Lea started Green Canada ,the party's internal members' newspaper (which later became Green Canada Vert before it was absorbed into the Green Party of Canada web pages). Lea initiated the practice of having regular teleconference meetings of the party's council. Aided by de Jong and Steve Kisby,Lea was the first to compile a comprehensive Green Party policy document for electronic distribution. Lea was the first Green Party of Canada leader to do a national tour (from Halifax to Clayoquot Sound,by bike,rail and air,during the 1993 federal election) and was the first to represent the party in a nationally televised debate. Lea created TV commercials and print advertising for elections and the 1992 Meech Lake Accord referendum. He advocated for a unified corporate identity for the party,and designed the first Green Party logo to be used nationally.
As leader,Lea made presentations to royal commissions on electoral reform and on financing the CBC[ clarification needed ],sometimes in French. As well Lea helped to organize party conferences and took part in legal challenges against the broadcast consortium that regulates the televised debates during the election period.
In 1994,to settle an impasse between the U.S. Committees of Correspondence (the national green party) and the California Green Party over representation to the 1995 World Green Coordination meeting in Mexico City,Lea organized an international election covering Canada,the U.S and the Caribbean,electing Ontario's Ella Haley and New Jersey's Anila Walkin.
As party leader,Lea campaigned for the House of Commons of Canada in the 1993 federal election,and received 613 votes in the Toronto riding of Trinity—Spadina for a sixth-place finish. He also campaigned for the Ontario legislature in the 1995 provincial election as a candidate of the Green Party of Ontario,and received 241 votes in the Toronto riding of St. George—St. David. He has not sought federal or provincial office since this time,though he remains active within the Green Party. In 1998,he volunteered to be the party's chief agent to relieve Steve Kisby from these duties.
Lea has long been an ally of Jim Harris in the Toronto Green community,and supported Harris's bid for re-election as party leader in 2004.
| 1995 Ontario general election : St. George—St. David | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |||||
| Progressive Conservative | Al Leach | 10,662 | 33.9 | |||||
| Liberal | Tim Murphy | 10,325 | 32.8 | |||||
| New Democratic | Brent Hawkes | 9,672 | 30.7 | |||||
| Independent | Linda Gibbons | 326 | 1.0 | |||||
| Green | Chris Lea | 241 | 0.8 | |||||
| Natural Law | Ron Robins | 151 | 0.5 | |||||
| Independent | Alex Nosal | 98 | 0.3 | |||||
| Total valid votes | 31,475 | |||||||
| 1993 Canadian federal election : Trinity—Spadina | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Tony Ianno | 19,769 | 51.14 | +13.79 | ||||
| New Democratic | Winnie Ng | 10,430 | 26.98 | -11.57 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Lee Monaco | 3,129 | 8.09 | -13.25 | ||||
| Reform | Peter Loftus | 3,027 | 7.83 | |||||
| National | Patrick Kutney | 881 | 2.28 | |||||
| Green | Chris Lea | 623 | 1.61 | |||||
| Natural Law | Ashley James Deans | 391 | 1.01 | |||||
| Libertarian | Paul Barker | 283 | 0.73 | -0.49 | ||||
| Marxist–Leninist | Fernand Deschamps | 74 | 0.19 | |||||
| Abolitionist | Robert Martin | 52 | 0.13 | |||||
| Total valid votes | 38,659 | |||||||
The Green Party of Ontario is a political party in Ontario, Canada. The party is led by Mike Schreiner. In 2018, Schreiner was elected as the party's first member of the Ontario Legislative Assembly. In the past, the party did see significant gains in the 2007 provincial election, earning 8% of the popular vote with some candidates placing second and third in their ridings. A milestone was reached in the 2018 provincial election, when Schreiner was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the riding of Guelph.
Ernest Larry Eves is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 23rd premier of Ontario from 2002 to 2003. A Progressive Conservative, he took over the premiership upon Mike Harris's resignation as party leader, but the party was defeated in the 2003 election by the Liberals, under Dalton McGuinty.
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).
James R. M. Harris is a Canadian author, environmentalist, and politician. He was leader of the Green Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006, when he was succeeded by Elizabeth May.
Miguel Figueroa is a Canadian political activist who was the leader of the Communist Party of Canada from 1992 to 2015. He is known for the landmark Figueroa case, which redefined the role of small parties and Canadian Parliamentary democracy, as well as his role re-establishing the Communist Party of Canada in the post-Soviet era.
John C. Turmel is a perennial candidate for election in Canada, and according to the Guinness World Records holds the records for the most elections contested and for the most elections lost, having contested 108 elections and lost 107. The other contest was a by-election that was pre-empted by a general election call.
Frank de Jong is a Canadian politician, environmentalist, and elementary school teacher. He joined the Green Party of Ontario in 1987 and became the party's first official leader in 1993 – a position he held until November 14, 2009, when he was succeeded by Mike Schreiner. From 2017 to 2019 he was the leader of the Yukon Green Party. De Jong has also campaigned for federal office as a member of the Green Party of Canada.
Glen Ronald Murray is a Canadian politician and urban issues advocate who served as the 41st Mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba from 1998 to 2004, and was the first openly gay mayor of a large North American city. He subsequently moved to Toronto, Ontario, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Toronto Centre in 2010, serving until 2017.
Mark Holland is a Canadian politician who serves as Minister of Health since July 26, 2023. A member of the Liberal Party, Holland represents Ajax in the House of Commons. He has previously served as Government House Leader from 2021 to 2023, and as Chief Government Whip from 2018 to 2021.
The Green Party of Canada ran a full slate of 308 candidates in the 2004 federal election. Some of these candidates have separate biography pages; relevant information about other candidates may be found here.
The Freedom Party of Ontario is a political party in Ontario, Canada.
The Green Party of Canada ran a full slate of 308 candidates in the 2006 Canadian federal election. Some of these candidates have separate biography pages; relevant information about other candidates may be found here.
The Green Party of Canada was founded at a conference held at Carleton University in Ottawa in 1983.
Paul Ferreira is a Canadian politician and one of the first openly gay politicians elected to provincial office in Canada. He also has the distinction of being the very first Azorean-Canadian MPP. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a member of the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) in the February 8, 2007 York South–Weston by-election, but was narrowly defeated in the 2007 general election. He subsequently served as chief of staff to party leader Howard Hampton until Hampton's retirement from that position in 2009. He later worked as a special assistant to leader Andrea Horwath. On Feb. 8, 2011, Ferreira was acclaimed as the Ontario NDP's candidate in York South-Weston in the 2011 provincial election.
Dennis Joseph Mills is a Canadian businessman and former politician. He was a Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of Toronto—Danforth in the east-end of downtown Toronto. From February 2012 until November 2016, Mills was a member of the board of directors of Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp and from April 2013 until the present he has been a director on the board of CGX Energy Inc. Mills is currently the President and CEO of Toronto Partners Inc. and is also founder of Racing Future Inc. where he is currently President and CEO.
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.
Mike Schreiner is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the Green Party of Ontario since 2009. Schreiner sits as a member of Provincial Parliament (MPP), representing Guelph; his 2018 election made him the first Green Party member elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
The 2015 Canadian federal election held on October 19, 2015, saw the Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, win 184 seats, allowing it to form a majority government with Trudeau becoming the next prime minister.
By-elections to the 41st Canadian Parliament were held to fill vacancies in the House of Commons of Canada between the 2011 federal election and the 2015 federal election. The 41st Canadian Parliament existed from 2011 to 2015 with the membership of its House of Commons having been determined by the results of the Canadian federal election held on May 2, 2011. The Conservative Party of Canada had a majority government during this Parliament.
Peter Maloney is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, activist and former politician, most noted as one of the first Canadian political figures ever to come out as gay and as a prominent builder of Toronto's LGBT community in the 1970s and 1980s.
Green parties in Canada | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party entities |
|  | ||||||||
| Federal level |
| |||||||||
| Provincial level |
| |||||||||
| Caucuses | ||||||||||
| See also | ||||||||||