Gerard Kennedy
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- This article is about the politician. For the actor, see Gerard Kennedy (actor).
Gerard Kennedy, MPP (born 1960 in The Pas, Manitoba) is a Canadian politician, who represents the riding of Parkdale—High Park in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. He is a member of the Liberal Party and formerly was the province's Minister of Education.
The son of a Liberal mayor of The Pas, Kennedy attended the St. John's-Ravenscourt School on a hockey scholarship before enrolling at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, in 1977.[1] He worked as a historical researcher for the Government of Alberta in the early 1980s, attended the University of Alberta, and then left it to found the Edmonton Food Bank in 1983.
After moving to Ontario, Kennedy was the executive director of Toronto, Ontario's Daily Bread Food Bank from 1986 to 1996. The food bank distributed $30 million worth of food each year without government funding; 150,000 people are estimated to have used its services every month. Kennedy was named in Toronto Life Magazine's list of fifty influential people in 1992, and was named newsmaker of the year by the Toronto Star in 1993. Kennedy was also given an honorable mention in the Financial Post Magazine's C.E.O. awards in 1995.
Kennedy entered political life in May 1996, running in a by-election for the Ontario legislature in the Toronto riding of York South (previously held by provincial NDP leader Bob Rae). The NDP (and its predecessor, the CCF) had held the riding since 1955; nevertheless, Kennedy's left-leaning credentials allowed him to take the riding as a Liberal. He received 7774 votes; his nearest competitor was NDP candidate (and future Toronto Mayor) David Miller, who took 6656 votes.
Despite being a newcomer to politics, Kennedy became the front-runner to replace Lyn McLeod as leader of the Ontario Liberal Party in late 1996. On the leadership convention floor he encountered a strong "anyone-but-Kennedy" movement divided among several candidates. Kennedy finished first on the first, second, third and fourth ballots, but was defeated on the fifth ballot by Dalton McGuinty. Although McGuinty initially finished fourth, he was able to increase his support from the party's establishment and right-wing, gaining delegates from the candidates that dropped off. The results of the leadership contest did not prove divisive within the party and both rivals eventually became strong allies. Kennedy served as the party's Health Critic during McGuinty's first opposition term.
Kennedy wanted to run in the redistributed riding of York South—Weston in the Ontario provincial election of 1999, but was forced to step aside for former leadership rival Joseph Cordiano. He instead ran in the neighbouring riding of Parkdale-High Park where he faced an interesting challenge from Anna-Marie Castrilli, another former Liberal leadership challenger who had defected to the governing Progressive Conservatives on the last sitting day of the legislature. Many anticipated that this would be a close race, but it was not: Kennedy won by over 10,000 votes.
The 1999 election was won by the Progressive Conservatives, and Kennedy became opposition critic for the high-profile Education portfolio.
The Liberals won a majority in the Ontario provincial election of 2003, and Kennedy was easily re-elected in Parkdale-High Park with about 58% of the vote (his nearest opponent received 16%). He was appointed Minister of Education on October 23, 2003. Under previous governments, the Education portfolio had been marked by considerable labour strife. In 1993 the NDP government introduced mandatory days off without pay. There were province-wide teachers's strikes when the PC government attempted to implement a restructuring program in 1996 and 1998, and many boards experienced work-to-rule campaigns that reduced extra-curricular activities.
In the spring of 2005, Kennedy announced the establishment of a provincial framework in teacher's negotiations, which would see teacher's salaries increase by approximately 10.5% over four years in exchange for four years of labour peace. The framework includes priorities such as workplace preparation courses and English as a Second Language programs.
2006 Liberal Leadership Race
On April 5, 2006 Kennedy resigned as Minister of Education to pursue the federal Liberal Leadership. Premier McGuinty, who admitted that finding a replacement was difficult, was reported to have set that day as a deadline for Kennedy to make a decision in order to prevent the leadership speculation from overshadowing the Ontario government's agenda. Kennedy will consult with his constituents as to whether he will resign as a member of the legislature.[2] He is being supported by Canadian Senator Terry Mercer, social activist June Callwood, and author Mary Jo Leddy. [3]
Gerard Kennedy is supported by MPs Mark Holland, John Cannis, Navdeep Bains, Mario Silva, Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Scott Simms, Omar Alghabra, Andrew Telegdi and Brent St. Denis, former MPs Lynn Myers, Marc Godbout, Russ Powers and Gary Carr, and MPPs Brad Duguid, Wayne Arthurs, Lorenzo Berardinetti, Kuldip Kular, David Caplan, Michael Bryant and Gerry Phillips.
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