Ian Deans is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 politician.

Born in Kilmarnock

Kilmarnock

Kilmarnock is a large burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland, with a population of 44,734. It is the second largest town in Ayrshire. The River Irvine runs through its eastern section, and the Kilmarnock Water passes through it, giving rise to the name 'Bank Street'...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, Deans moved to Canada as a youth and found work as a firefighter

Firefighter

Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...

. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

Legislative Assembly of Ontario

The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...

 as an Ontario New Democratic Party

Ontario New Democratic Party

The Ontario New Democratic Party or , formally known as New Democratic Party of Ontario, is a social democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. It is a provincial section of the federal New Democratic Party. It was formed in October 1961, a few months after the federal party. The ONDP had its...

 Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) in the 1967 provincial election

Ontario general election, 1967

The Ontario general election of 1967 was held on October 17, 1967, to elect the 117 members of the 28th Legislative Assembly of Ontario of the Province of Ontario, Canada....

 representing the Hamilton

Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

-area riding

Electoral district (Canada)

An electoral district in Canada, also known as a constituency or a riding, is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based...

 of Wentworth.

In 1970, Deans broke with most of his colleagues by expressing support for Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau

Pierre Trudeau

Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...

's implementation of the War Measures Act

War Measures Act

The War Measures Act was a Canadian statute that allowed the government to assume sweeping emergency powers in the event of "war, invasion or insurrection, real or apprehended"...

 during the FLQ Crisis.

In 1978, he ran in the Ontario NDP leadership convention

Ontario CCF/NDP leadership conventions

The Ontario New Democratic Party elects its leaders by secret ballot of the party members and/or their delegates at leadership elections, as did its predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation . The party leader can be challenged for the leadership at the party's biennial convention...

 to succeed Stephen Lewis

Stephen Lewis

Stephen Henry Lewis, is a Canadian politician, broadcaster and diplomat. He was the leader of the social democratic Ontario New Democratic Party for most of the 1970s. During many of the those years as leader, his father David Lewis was simultaneously the leader of the Federal New Democratic Party...

. Deans' earlier support for the War Measures Act became a point of contention and he recanted his position saying he was wrong and had regretted it ever since. Initially projected to be the frontrunner, he lost by less than 200 votes to Michael Cassidy

Michael Cassidy

Michael Morris Cassidy is a Canadian politician. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1971 to 1984, and in the Canadian House of Commons from 1984 to 1988...

. Deans resigned from the legislature the next year, and won a seat in the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 during the 1980 federal election

Canadian federal election, 1980

The Canadian federal election of 1980 was held on February 18, 1980 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 32nd Parliament of Canada...

 representing Hamilton Mountain

Hamilton Mountain

Hamilton Mountain is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1968. The riding is located in the Hamilton, Ontario region....

.

Deans served as House Leader

House Leader

In Canada, each political party with representation in the House of Commons has a House Leader who is a front bench Member of Parliament and an expert in parliamentary procedure...

 for the New Democratic Party

New Democratic Party

The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...

 during the illness of Stanley Knowles

Stanley Knowles

Stanley Howard Knowles, PC, OC was a Canadian parliamentarian. Knowles represented the riding of Winnipeg North Centre from 1942 to 1958 on behalf of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and again from 1962 to 1984 representing the CCF's successor, the New Democratic Party .Knowles was widely...

, and became official House Leader following the 1984 federal election

Canadian federal election, 1984

The Canadian federal election of 1984 was held on September 4 of that year to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 33rd Parliament of Canada...

.

In the fall of 1986, he surprised colleagues by accepting a job from Progressive Conservative

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

 Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Canada

The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

 Brian Mulroney

Brian Mulroney

Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...

 as an administrator in the public service sector.

In 2007, Deans returned to politics and was acclaimed as the federal NDP's candidate in Brant

Brant (electoral district)

Brant is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1904 to 1949 and since 1968.The federal riding was created in 1903. It consisted of Brant County excluding Brantford....

. However, due to the onset of Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...

, he dropped out of the race and moved back to Hamilton. In a recent interview with the Hamilton Mountain News, Deans said that he may run in the Hamilton Municipal Election in 2010 if his Parkinson's hasn't progressed any farther.

On September 2, 2010, Deans announced he would be running for mayor of Hamilton in the 2010 Municipal Election

Hamilton municipal election, 2010

The 2010 Hamilton municipal election was held on October 25, 2010 to select one Mayor, fifteen members of the Hamilton City Council and members of both English and French Public and Catholic School Boards...

. He was quoted as saying, " the current city council 'a laughing stock' that has made it impossible to sell anything to do with Hamilton."

At the last minute, he changed his mind, withdrew from the Mayoral race and ran instead for the position of Ward 2 (Downtown) Councillor.